Freeman Cebu Sports

Sports eye

SPORTS EYE - Raffy T. Uytiepo - The Freeman

September 1, 2016 | 12:00am

After every debacle, there’s always one question, what went wrong? Of course there’s always reasons or alibis to that question. Our campaign to the Rio Olympics yielded only one silver courtesy of Hidilyn Diaz in women’s weightlifting. Former PSC chair and current PATAFA chief Philip Juico was disappointed over the dismal showing of our country among Southeast Asia neighbors, placing sixth in medal standing. Thailand lorded it over with two gold, two silver and two bronze medals followed by Indonesia (1-2-0), Vietnam (1-1-0), Singapore (1 gold) and Malaysia four silvers and a bronze. A lot of bashing on social media prompted chef de mission Romasanta to wail “Don’t Be Cruel.” Some partylist congressmen even called our athletes, tourists and junkets and heed a call to prioritize, meaning just send athletes who have chances of winning medals, forget the lines, “just for experience.” That’s making the Olympics a testing ground. Maybe we would just concentrate on women’s weightlifting, taekwondo and boxing. Juico said our boxers took an early exit while our judo bet was gone in 60 seconds. Golfer Miguel Tabuena ended near cellar. And how about our runners? Well, long jumper Marestella Subang was a goner even before the actual battle when she injured her back during the warm up our good friend Mary Joy Tabal was visibly burned out after running two marathons in as many months, placed in the last top 10 finishing 124th out of 133 survivors, reason: “pwerteng inita.” Her time of 3:02:27 was almost an hour off the pace of champion JemimaSumgong of Kenya who clocked 2:24:13 and Eric Cray? Well, “Naay gamay consuelo” when he reached the semifinals in the 400m. There was a little hope in taekwondo but alas bad luck struck Kirstie Elaine Alora who could have won a bronze. Well, let’s just hope we improve in the next year’s Sea Games in Malaysia. Maybe my good friend Butch Ramirez the new PSC chairman is just what an ailing Philippine sports need.

Name game

A lot of my readers asked me if I could come up with monikers or nicknames of sports personalities and celebrities. Well in response to that here are some. Wilt Chamberlain (the Stilt), Allen Iverson (the Answer) Elvin Hayes (the Big E), Kobe Bryant (Black Mamba), Larry Bird (the hick from French Lick), Hakeem Olajuwon (the Dream), Pete Maravich (Pistol Pete), Karl Malone (the Mailman), George Gervin (Iceman), Michael Jordan (His Airness), Clyde Drexler (the Glide), Robert Parish (the Chief), Julius Erving (Dr. J), Earvin Johnson (Magic or Showtime), Daryll Dawkins (Chocolate Thunder) , David Robinson (the Admiral), David Thompson (Skywalker), Oscar Robertson (Big O), Earl Monroe (Pearl) Jerry West (Mr. Clutch).I will mention more names next column.

Did you know?

Abebe Bikila the barefoot runner from Ethiopia won his second Olympic marathon gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics (he was wearing shoes this time). At the awards ceremony, no one in the band knew the Ethiopian national anthem, so they played the Japanese anthem instead.

Sonny Liston on May 25, 1965, in his second loss to Muhammad Ali, Sonny Liston went down at 1:42 of the first round. The knockdown timekeeper had counted all the way to 22 when Liston finally got to his feet. He and Ali began to throw punches but referee Jersey Joe Walcott, responding to the shouts that Liston had not stood on time, separated the men and declared Ali the winner at 2:12

Bing Crosby in 1948 he got a hole-in-one at the 16th at Cypress point, and achievement duplicated just once since then, the hole is 180 yards across the Pacific Ocean. In 1946 Crosby was a Pittsburgh Pirates minority owner until his death in 1977.

ELTON JOHN became part owner of the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League. He was also part-owner of the Philadelphia Freedom of World Team Tennis.