Freeman Cebu Sports

Hall of fame

January 11, 2016 | 9:00am

On January 24 the Philippine Sports Commission will enshrine former athletes who brought honor to the country from the period covering 1924 to 1974. Heading the list is my good friend Mona Sulaiman and “kababayan” Haydee Coloso-Espino of iloilo City. Mona was Asia’s former fastest woman, winning the gold medal in the 100m and 200m dash while anchoring the team in the 4x100m relay in the 1962 Jakarta Games. I was with Mona when we competed in the 1996 Asian Masters Athletics Championship in Seoul, Korea. It’s about time they give some recognition to athletes who contributed to the sports glory of the country. Sad to say Mona is now ailing and is wheel-chair bound. On the other hand, Haydee won 100m butterfly swimming gold medal in the 1954 Manila Asian Games and the 100m freestyle in the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games. Another swimmer who is a candidate to the Hall of Fame is Nancy Deano, who is from Dingle, Iloilo, same birthplace of Cebu’s current archbishop, Jose Palma. Other candidates are another Ilongga Inocencia Solis. Felicisimo Ampon of tennis and basketball players Lauro Mumar, Kurt Bachman and Mariano Tolentino. The first batch of Hall of Famers were enshrined in 2010 and the list included Gabriel Flash Elorde, Pancho Villa, Anthony Villanueva and Carlos Loyzaga and the 1954 Basketball team.

Cebu Hall Of Fame

While Manila is honoring the former athletes, my friend Sammy P. is wondering what ever happened to the Cebu Hall of Fame? He said he used to see the photos of Cebu’s best athletes at the corridors of the Cebu City Sports Center, but it’s been replaced with other photos. Sam even hired Sherlock Holmes to locate the framed photos but got negative results. He’s now asking James Bond to take over. Seriously now, maybe my good friend Ricky Ballestros knows the whereabouts of the frames. We just pray that these Cebuano sports heroes be given a space in the complex for they are the inspiration of our future athletes.

Ilonggo Coaches

Still on former athletes, I’m happy to know that PATAFA kingpin Philip Ella Juico has hired former Sea Games medalists to coach the athletics team. Named recently to the coaching staff is Rene Herrera of Guimaras, Iloilo who started in races I organized in Iloilo and Bacolod. Rene is a former Sea Games gold medalist in the steeplechase and represented the country in the 2012 London Olympics. Joining Rene are John Lozada (400m Sea Games gold medalist) of Iloilo City and Sean Guevara (pole vault) also of Iloilo City. The other Ilonggo coaches are thrower Danny Fresnido and Arnel Ferrera and oh yes, Jojo Posadas, husband of Elma Muros. Those who were replaced were Ilonggos Mario Castro, Ernie Candelario and Agustin Jarina and my protege’ Roy Vence who saw action in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Roy is also a six-time Milo Marathon champion.

Pawn Sacrifice

Chess buffs must not miss the movie Pawn Sacrifice, now available on DVD. It’s the story of American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer and his world chess encounter with Boris Spassky in Iceland Bobby is very popular in the Philippines and is a good friend of my “agaw” GM Eugene Torre. In fact Fischer got Eugene to be his second during his exhibition match with Spassky just before he died. He has also a daughter with a Filipina who is based in Baguio City.