Breakthrough

Last year Filipino athletes invaded unfamiliar territory deserving of yearend accolade. The Malditas is team of the year for becoming the first Philippine team, male or female, to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. They also won the country’s first ever crown in the Asian football federation and elsewhere.

The Philippine shooting team won 61 medals at the international practical shooting competition, reiterating a vertically challenged race should focus on sports where precision is might, not height. And, within the context of football, quickness and agility. Although the Gilas Pilipinas women defended their basketball crown in the lowest level of international competition, the men’s team was upset in the one gold that matters.

Alex Eala is female athlete of the year. The Rafa Nadal Academy protégée won the junior grand slam singles title at the US Open, after sharing two crowns with foreign doubles partners in other majors before. She is the first Filipino, man or woman, to have won a singles slam and ranked a career best of 214, the highest placement by a Filipina in world tennis.

Hidilyn Diaz finally became a world champion to complete her medal collection. The strongest Filipina now targets heavier category in Paris 2024, probably her last Olympics. But this early or timely, her successors lurk – Angeline Colonia and Vanessa Sarno.

Meanwhile, two other women scored their personal first and the country’s. Karateka Junna Tskii is first Filipina to win gold in the worlds. Teenage racer Bianca Bustamante is first Filipina to ever compete in the W series. Fil-Am Kayla Richardson reclaimed her gold after winning the regional century dash crown in the same year sprint queen Lydia de Vega lost her last race. Eric Cray multiplied his, after winning his fifth consecutive regional 400m hurdles gold.

Carlos Yulo may be a multiple medalist in the regionals and the worlds, but male athlete of the year is EJ Obiena who won a historic bronze, the first ever medal by a Filipino, man or woman, in the world championships. The pole vault phenom soared to his best season, jumped higher than his personal, regional and continental record and won multiple international golds including the Diamond League, another first for a Filipino, man or woman.

Kai Sotto may have lost the chance to play in the NBA, but makes his presence tower as an Adelaide 36er. He lost the premiere league, but fans voted him FIBA young player of the year. Despite his relative success in the professional circuit, the 7’2” Filipino continues to play for the name on the front of his jersey ‘til people remember the one on the back, he says. Patriotic, just as Eala spoke Tagalog in her victory speech.

Featherweight Mark Magsayo won and lost a world crown, but redeemed by bantamweight Carlo Paalam who slugged to gold in the Asian elite boxing championships, reiterating that aside from precision as key to winning for a shorter and smaller race, there is also division. Or category. Choose battles, mismatch is not a match. David beating Goliath is either fluke or fiction. These little brown dolls triumphed not because of fortune but because of Spartan preparation.