MANILA , 5 April — Two legendary bowlers are taking separate routes, although both are headed well on the road to greatness.
One is coming back to the sport that has made him the world’s best in the sport, while the other is bidding for a melodic farewell.
Rafael "Paeng" Nepomuceno, a four-time World Cup champion, returns to action next month when he takes part in the 2002 World Tenpin Masters from April 12-14 at the Goresbrook Leisure Center in Doncaster, UK, in what could well be his comeback performance this year.
On the other hand, Arianne Cerdena-Valdez, who won the gold when bowling was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Olympics as a demonstration sport, is seriously considering retirement after 22 years of donning the country’s colors.
Nepomuceno will compete in the World Tenpin Masters UK in a campaign that will more or less determine his readiness to spearhead the country’s bid in the coming Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea.
But Philippine bowling may lose a veteran internationalist in Cerdena-Valdez, who is seriously considering leaving the sport closest to her heart for good.
The 40-year-old Cerdena-Valdez, a cinch to form part of the national team to the Pusan Games, said she wants to concentrate full time on her family and at the same time, give aspiring bowlers a chance to shine.
Saying she is not getting any younger, Cerdena-Valdez said candidly: "I have to retire sooner or later." "There are a lot of younger bowlers out there who need the break. In fact, me and my husband have been planning this (retirement) for the past 11 years but each year, I couldn’t resist the flag and country," she said.
Cerdena-Valdez has devoted two decades of her life to the sport, so she thinks it’s high time for her to play full-time wife to Ramon, a dental assistant in the US, and mother to a 15-year-old daughter.
"In fact, the past 11 years, me and my husband get to see each other two months at the most. It’s no joke being with the national team, really," she said.
Still, the Philippine Bowling Congress is persuading her to reconsider her plan and continue representing the country in international competitions.
Cerdeña-Valdez, however, said her final decision would depend on a heart-to-heart talk with her husband.
"I really have to talk to my husband. We cannot discuss it over the phone so I have to go to the US and talk to him. Maybe in a month or two, I could come up with my final decision on whether or not to go on with the national team," she said.
Valdez started out as an 18-year-old upstart in the 1981 Southeast Asian Games in Manila and went on to capture at least six gold medals in the biennial meet, including the lone gold won by the Philippine bowling team in the 1999 Sea Games in Brunei.
Her brightest moment on the world stage came in Seoul in 1988 when she snared the singles gold in the demonstration sport of bowling, a feat that no other Filipino has equaled in the Olympiad.
Interestingly, Nepomuceno, who skipped last year’s Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia due to a shoulder injury, is expected to be a shoo-in in the 12-man team the Philippine Bowling Congress intends to send to the Asiad set Sept. 29-Oct. 14.
He is among 16 world-class bowlers from 13 countries invited to see action in the made-for-television event.
He captured the title in 1999 for which he was awarded the Philippine Legion of Honor medal. He placed third in the tournament last year.
Out to foil Nepomuceno’s bid this year are Zulkifli, South Africa’s Guy Caminski, Canada’s Robin Crawford, Belgium’s Gery Verbruggen, England’s Richard Hood, 2000 World Tenpin Masters king Tim Mack of the US, former World Cup champ Tomas Leandersson of Sweden, Wales’ Mel Isaac, England’s Kirsten Penny, Norway’s Kim Asbjorn Haugen, former World Cup king Ahmed Shaheen of Qatar, England’s Phil Scammel, The Netherlands’ Nico Theinpondt, and Torgersen.
The Filipino Hall of Famer will battle Australia’s Ann Maree Putney in the first round of the single-elimination format tournament that offers $30,000 to the champion.
He has told PBC officials he would be 100 percent fit for the Games, unlike last year when a painful shoulder forced him to beg off from the RP squad to the SEA Games.
His career appeared on its dead-end after a complicated surgery on his left wrist kept him out of the limelight in late 1999, but he was able to play in international events again in 2001.
Last year, Nepomuceno, who made a comeback after a wrist surgery sidelined him for two years, beat Canada’s Dianne Buchanan, 457-411, in the first round, and Putney, 359-330, in the quarterfinals en route to the semifinals against Malaysia’s Shalin Zulkifli.
The Malaysian star, however, got the better of the Filipino ace, 470-406, and went on to outplay 1998 champ Tore Torgersen of Norway, 455-450, to claim the 2001 title.
FedEx to bring cycling tour back to life
Philippine cycling is expected to wheel back to life after courier giant Federal Express (FedEx) announced plans to revive the prestigious annual cycling tour.
Local riders have not tasted top-notch cycling action since the Marlboro Tour, the Philippine’s own version of Tour de France which was last staged in 1998.
Since 1955, the Tour has been the most widely-anticipated annual cycling event in the country.
National team cyclist Warren Davadilla won the last staging of the Tour in 1998.
The event was scrapped after Marlboro dropped its sponsorship due to a realignment of its advertising policies and a law banning tobacco companies from sponsoring sports events.
This time, the tour will be bankrolled by Airfreight 2100, franchise holder of Federal Express basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The courier firm will fill in the vacuum left by Marlboro to revive the country’s biggest summer sporting spectacle and quench the Filipino cyclists’ thirst for big-time action on local shores.
"We are seriously considering reviving the tour in the interest of cycling in the country," said Lito Alvarez, president of Airfreight 2100 which owns the FedEx franchise in the Philippines. "We are aware of the importance of the tour in local sports and we really want to bring it back."
Alvarez said they will start to rehabilitate the Tour in a slow but steady process. They are also planning to put some innovations to spice up the race.
The "FedEx Tour," according to Alvarez, would be launched with a four-day race called the "FedEx Calabarzon Tour" from April 25-28 and another major event after the Pusan Asian Games in September. FedEx had earlier planned to stage a major tour this year, but time constraints prevented them from hosting such major event.
Under the FedEx plan, the Tour will grow into a 12-stage event next year before evolving into a full-fledged Tour of the Philippines in the next two years.
After that, FedEx intends to bring in foreign competitors by hooking up with the International Cycling Union (UCI).
FedEx officials have been meeting with their counterparts from the Professional Cyclists Association of the Philippines (PCAP), which organized the defunct Tour. They are expected to finalize matters by April. The news regarding the Tour revival drew a wave of excitement from cyclists all over the country.
"This is good news for the cyclists. They have waited for a long time for the revival of the Tour," said the current president of the Professional Cyclists Association of the Philippines (PCAP), Paquito Rivas, who is also the Tour’s original Eagle of the Mountain. Lawyer Cornelio Padilla, the former PCAP president and the group’s current consultant, echoed the statement of Rivas.
PCAP president Paquito Rivas welcomed FedEx’s plan with open arms. "This is good news for the cyclists. They have waited for a long time for the revival of the Tour," he said.
At the same time, FedEx is seeking to lay the foundation for a program intended to make the country’s top riders at par with their Asian and other international counterparts.
Alvarez stressed the involvement of FedEx and Airfreight 2100 chairman Bert Lina is not confined to the revival of the Tour.
Lina, according to Alvarez, wants to support the national team in their participation to international tournaments and put them at par with their Asian and other international counterparts. "Our interest is not centered merely on the revival of the Tour. We’re not going into it just for the sake of getting it over and done with. Mr. Lina has a vision to put the country in the world cycling map," Alvarez said. "Cycling has been the passion of Mr. Lina since he was young."
Lina, he said, wants the Tour to be "a grassroots base from where cycling stars will be discovered" and even plans to become an inspiration for the national cycling team.
Lina, added Alvarez, also plans to dangle incentives to riders who can break a certain record. "For starters, let’s say we start with a certain time. If a cyclist meets that time, he gets an incentive. Then, the following year, we lower the mark. That way, we are assured the cyclists develop each year as the Tour passes," Alvarez explained.
