BENCHWARMER

Who dug the gold?
RAMON DACAWI

There was this silent, short-lived and unpublished debate in the sports community when Hector Begeo rose to become the only Filipino trackster to break the nine-minute barrier in the gruelling 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Who discovered and honed this Igorot who, in his prime, took the gold in the Southwest Asian Games and the bronze in the Asian Games? His first physical education teacher? His coaches in the “Palarong Pambansa” or in the “Gintong Alay” national training pool?

Nobody really cared to know who and nobody wants to know. Except when you have a compleat trainer and ring strategist the likes of Freddie Roach, that competent and dedicated guy who polished Manny Pacquiao’s rough edges and guided him to world boxing stardom.

No one is interested to know who first saw Pacquiao’s potential with his fists. I’m more interested to know who convinced him to take to the hustings and lose his bid for congressman. Or how many luxury cars he has and what his next action film will be.

Sports scribes recently focused on our medallists in Thailand. We Cordillerans rightfully claimed our own contributed immensely to the Philippine haul in the biennial games. We were there in judo, wushu and – yes - women’s boxing.

Who believed in the promise of these combat artists long before they produced medals? I don’t know. That’s the reason why I’m not sure whether I spelled right the other name of wushu coach and trainer Tony Candelaria, whom I guess is also known as Tsing Tsong Tsai.

What I heard is that this Baguio Boy had a short stint playing a minor “kontrabida” character in Filipino action films. Reel martial art must have affected his brain, enough for him to dream and believe he could pass on his knowledge in wushu to our Cordillera kids who, otherwise, dream of nothing but making it to the PBA in this country of midgets fallen heads-over-heels for basketball.

His looks and name tell you Tony is of Chinese descent. He, however, appears to be an exception to the common perception that all Chinese are good in business. For years, he fought windmills, investing whatever resources he had for wushu. He begged and begged and begged, not for recognition but for support so one more of his wards would make it to the next national or international tournament.

So now we have Olympics–bound wushu champions Marianne Mariano and Benjie Rivera, Asian Games silver medallist Edward Folayang, bronze medallist Daniel Parantac and many more. The list will take up space here.

So now we have Alice Kate Aparri and Jouveliet Chilem, both silver medallists in women’s boxing. Personally, their names ring a bell as I wrote on their victories in an international meet a few years back. That was after another Don Quixote opened the country’s first-ever women’s boxing program here.

Like Candelaria, Dr. Charles Cheng believes the Cordillera youth’s physique is made for combat sports, if not marathon. Like Tony, Doc Charles paid dearly for his dream - and insight – to open a women’s boxing program. It’s an obsession shared by former amateur boxing stand-out Glicerio Catalico, now the girl boxers’ coach.

As a member of the Baguio Centennial Commission, Doc Charles recently launched “Piso Para Sa Manlalaro” a fund drive for Baguio’s current and future athletes. If people would listen and respond we’ll have more judokas coming after SEA Games winners Helen Dawa and Estie Gray Liwanen. These two are the latest in Baguio’s long list of winners in this martial arts that Ben Caguioa, Jorge Borja, the Dino Brothers, Nars Barcelon, Balsoon Cabato, and other adherents had quietly sustained for years.

So who discovered Hector Begeo? The story goes that when Hector was a boy, his father sent him early one morning to the community store in Data, Bauko, Mt. Province for a bag of pandesal. When he learned the baker had ran out of supply, the boy errand boy decided to run to Bontoc town, a half-marathon away.

In a jiffy, Hector was back home before his father’s coffee mug could turn cold. The boy explained why he was dripping wet with sweat. His dad was simply amazed to find the pandesal was still hot, too. What Hector couldn’t’ explain was he had the bag pressed in his armpit on the return home.

Okay, the anecdote is apocryphal. I don’t know who discovered Hector as I never bothered to ask him. It’s a common lapse among sports writers who seldom dig for stories behind how the gold was won. (e-mail: rdacawi@yahoo.com for comments).