THE PHILIPPINES? THIRST for a first-ever Olympic gold medal remained unquenched. But remarkable achievements by Filipino athletes in other fronts, as well as droplets of inspired performances in the Athens Games, averted what could have been a parched and unproductive 2004.
Controversial events and startling developments also hugged the headlines as the Year of the Monkey swung from one branch of sports to the other within a 12-month period, seating and unseating officials and turning the world upside down for a number of professional basketball players.
The country?s 16-athlete delegation came home empty-handed from Greece, but a homegrown heroine named Jennifer Rosales emerged to part the darkness and show up the world?s greatest lady golfers.
Rosales, J-Ro to fans, captured the imagination with her successful campaign in the US Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour, capped by a victory in the Chick-Fil A championship in Strockbridge, Georgia.
Manny Pacquiao, the consensus world featherweight champion, settled for a split draw with reigning World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation champion Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico, and although he failed to become the first Filipino and Asian to capture a world crown in three divisions, the “Pacman” surfaced as country?s brightest hope for the honor.
The swinging season past saw a pair of local chess players become Grandmasters ? Nelson Mariano III and youthful Mark Paragua ? raising to five the number of Filipino GMs.
The Department of Justice finally ordered the deportation of six of eight Fil-foreign players earlier found by the Senate Committee on Games, Amusements and Sports to have falsified documents attesting to their Filipino citizenship.
Asked to immediately leave the country were Asi Taulava, Mick Pennisi, Davon Harp, Jon Ordonio, Rudy Hatfield and Alex Crisano. Spared were Andy Seigle and Dorian Pena, whose papers the DoJ found to be in order.
Preparations for the country?s hosting of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games next year was put in place with the constitution of the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee and the appointment of then Department of Tourism secretary Roberto “Obet” Pagdanganan as chairman following the SEA Games Federation?s approval of 41 sports to be disputed.
Two of the major players in the preparations and the actual staging of the biennial meet ? Philippine Olympic Committee president Celso Dayrit and Philippine Sports Commission chairman Eric Buhain ? found themselves shoved out in the cold.
Dayrit, president of the president of the SEA Games federation, surprised everyone in the local sporting community when he withdrew from seeking a new four-year term as POC head, paving the way for the acclamation of former Tarlac Congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco. Dayrit later also relinquished the Philsoc presidency, transferring the duties and responsibilities to Pagdanganan.
Shocking, to say the least, was the removal of Buhain, the country?s multi-gold medal swimming champion during the 1990 Manila SEA Games, from his PSC post after President Arroyo appointed him as chairman of the Games and Amusements Board, an agency tasked with overseeing professional sports, in place of Eduardo Villanueva.
Efforts for the country?s bid to regain supremacy in the Asian basketball scene and its place in the Olympic Games was set in motion when the Philippine Basketball Association and the Basketball Association of the Philippines finally signed a landmark four-year-long memorandum of agreement giving the professional league sole responsibility in forming, financing and training the national team to two Asian Basketball Confederation tournaments and two other regional competitions.
The development followed a year-long power struggle for leadership in the BAP marked by the PBA taking the forefront of the formation of a so-called basketball super body, which fizzled out after the International Basketball Federation continued to recognize the Tiny Literal and Graham Lim-led group as the legitimate governing cage body over the rival Basketball Association of the Philippines, Inc., which had succeeded earlier in getting a Court of Appeal ruling to the contrary.
Prior to this, the PBA, through the efforts of Commissioner Noli Eala, reformatted its previous three-conference season to only two starting with the transition Fiesta Conference won by Barangay Ginebra.
From hereon, Asia?s first pro-league will start its calendar in September and lasts until June the following year, also for the purpose of giving way for the country?s participation in the FIBA-Asia tournaments leading to the Olympics.
As the Olympics returned to its birth place in Athens, the whole nation rode a whirl of expectations in the quest for a gold medal in 80 years of barren participation, with the boxers and taekwondo jins projected as the brightest hopes to end the draught.
But it was not meant to be. Still, despite its failure to bring home a medal that duplicated its predecessor?s inconsequential showing four years ago in Sydney, the national contingent?s performance in Athens was not without its moments, thanks to a pair of young lady Olympians, Jasmin Figueroa, an archer, and taekwondo jin Mary Antonette Rivero.
The 19-year-old Tondo girl Figueroa established herself as the best Filipino archer to compete in the Olympics by finishing a modest 27th place in what improved the previous best of 37th by Francisco Naranjilla in the 1972 Games in Munich.
And she did it in stunning fashion, besting former world No. 2 Natalia Valeeva of Italy by the slimmest of margin, 132-130, in the round of 64. She failed to advance though in the race for a better finish when she lost a heartbreaking 150-152 count to World University Games silver medalist Almudena Gallardo of Spain in the next round.
Rivero, only 16, narrowly missed advancing into the gold medal play, losing a controversial decision to her hometown Greek rival in the semifinal round following a pair of convincing triumphs in the elimination and quarterfinal phases.
Sharing the limelight with Figueroa and Rivero were swimmers Miguel Molina and Jaclyn Pangilinan. Molina smashed the 12-year-old national record in his heat in the men?s 200 breaststroke with a two-minute and 19.19 seconds clocking that erased from the book the previous 2:20.37mark set by Lee Concepcion in an international meet in Spain.
Fil-am Pangilinan, 18, also did not make it to the medal race but clocked 2:33.38 in the women?s 200 breaststroke, a new RP standard. She then submitted a 1:12.47 in the 100 breaststroke to eclipse her old mark of 1:12.82.
The sleek-dressing Rosales overcame a four-stroke deficit going into the final round by shooting a seven-under 65 in the last 18 holes to break into the win column in the LPGA ruling the $1.6-million Chick-Fil-A, finishing at 14-under par, merely a stroke ahead of South Korean Lee Jung Yeon and Grace Park, Becky Morgan of Wales and American Rosie Jones. The efforts earned for her $140,000 or R13.5 million.
Pacquiao, acknowledged as Ring Magazine?s People?s featherweight champion, sent Marquez to the canvass three times right in the first round but failed to finish off the game Mexican, settling for a split draw with judge John Stewart of Nevada scoring the bout 115-110 in his favor, Guy Jutras of Canada 115-110 for his opponent, and Burt Clemens of New Jersey 113-113.
Clemens later admitted submitting a wrong score depriving the Filipino pride what could have been his third title in as many weight divisions.
Later in the year, the General Santos City-based Pacquiao, who turned 26 last Dec. 17, scored a sensational fourth round knockout win over Thai Fahsan 3K Battery in their 12-round encounter at the Fort in Taguig City in what served as a tune up for hiscoming mega-buck collission with Marquez in February.
Rosales and Pacquiao were adjudged Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year by the Philippine Sportswriters Association for its annual Awards Night on Jan. 13.
A sprinkling of victories on other fronts, flavored the year with success.
Arvin Ting and Rene Catalan reaffirmed their supremacy over their counterparts in other parts of the world by bagging three gold medals in the World Wushu Championships in Yongon, Myanmar last December.
Ting, 17, had a pair by ruling the taolu (form) competitions, while Catalan, also 17, topped the 48-kilogarm category in the sanshou (full contact) division.
Baguio City “Golden Boy” Brent Velasco and Roland Claro won their respective weight classes in the Muaythai World Championships held in Bangkok last November with the former claiming the title in the 54-kilogram category and the latter the 48-kilogram level.
And pinweight Gretchen Abaniel and bantamweight Jouveliet Chelim ruled their respective weight categories in the Asian Women?s Boxing Championships in Taiwan, powering the Philippines to a second overall finish behind eventual winner Canada.
