Mission accomplished

Asia’s erstwhile fastest woman Mona Sulaiman once asked me if the Philippines could win its first gold medal before she dies. Well, too bad for Mona she didn’t live to witness our first medal in 97 years when she died  few years ago. As I wrote in a previous column, the Tokyo Olympics could be the realization of what was first deemed as an “impossible dream”.  But just dreaming of the guilt would be an insult to a country that has  a population of over 100 million compared to Singapore with only 6 million, who already has a gold medal heading to Tokyo.  Well, it’s all over except that were still floating in Cloud Nine with our best finish ever, one gold, two silver and one bronze medals.  To recall, I piked four Pinoys who could give us our first gold, Hidilyn Diaz, EJ Obiena, Caloy Yulo, Yuka Saso and of course the four boxers, Nesthy Petecio, Eumir Marcial Carlo Paalam and Irish  Magno.  Hidilyn ended almost a century of waiting when he won the women’s weightlifting gold in the 55kg category in Olympic record.  Next to triumph was Petecio, who won the silver against Japan’s Sena Irie with Eumir Marcial adding a bronze medal after losing  to Ukrainian Oleksandr Khyzhniak.  Carlo Paalam was on the brink of annexing our first boxing gold but fell short when he lost steam in the third round, losing to Great Britain’s Galal Yafai.  In  other fronts, gymnast Caloy Yulo almost made it to the podium but wound up fourth while EJ Obiena entered  the Finals but could not vault to a medal finish.  Same goes to our golfers Saso and Bianca Pagdanganan who failed to sustain her first round lead. Sase rallied to enter the top ten in the final standing.  Cebuanos Margielyn Didal.  (skateboarding), Eree Ando(weightlifting) and Kiyome Watanabe (judo), also failed to advance.  Although they did’nt win medals, we are all praise for our team who are mostly first timers in the Olympics except for Hidilyn. Our hats off to Irish Magno(boxing), Juvic Pagunsan(golf), Jayson Valdez (shooting), Chris Nievarez(rowing) Kristina Knott (athletics) and  Kurt Barbosa(taekwondo) and swimmers Luke Gebbie and Remedy Rule. Looking forward to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Running presidents Jimmy Carter

Was member of the cross-country team while a student at the Naval Academy.  Michael Dukakis, who unsuccessfully challenged Carter in 1988, was a marathoner.  In 1951, he finished 5TH place in the Boston  Marathon in 3 hours and 31 minutes.  Carter averaged 6 miles a day and regularly  finishes his runs in less than 50 minutes.  Bill Clinton an 8-minute miler (1.6km), once snarled Washington DC traffic by jogging in the streets. To keep him inside, a quarter-mile track was added to  the White House grounds.  Clinton also loved another oval inside the White House, especially if a pretty intern named Monica Lewinsky is around. 

George Bush

One time-captain of the Yale Baseball Team, tortured the White House press with daily 3-mile runs. He once left reporters gasping on an 8- kilometer beach walk at his vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine.  His time, 59 minutes and 25 seconds.

George W. Bush

ran the 1993  Houston Marathon in 3:44.  Before that, he finished the Presidents Fitness Challenge 3 Mile Run in 20 minutes and 29 seconds, to rank 26th overall.