MANILA, 27 September — Busan, here we come! Billiards aces Django Bustamante and Efren "Bata" Reyes, four-time Bowling World Cup winner Paeng Nepomuceno, 1997 world wushu champion Mark Robert Rosales and three-time World Steel Challenge supremo Jethro Dionisio will lead the Philippines’ campaign in the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.
Bustamante has been designated flag-bearer of the contingent made up of world champions, Olympians and medalists in various international competitions. Also carrying the country’s cudgels are taekwondo stalwarts Roberto Cruz, Donald David Geisler, Eva Marie Ditan, and Tshomlee Go; bowler Liza del Rosario; wushu-sanshou artists Joseph Pasiwat, Edward Folayang and Rexel Nganhayna; and boxer Harry Tanamor; swimmers Miguel Mendoza, Lizza Danila, Carlo Piccio and Jenny Guerrero, diver Sheila Marie Perez, tracksters Eduardo Buenavista and Lerma Bulauitan, archer Jennifer Chan, boxer Romeo Brin, equestrienne Toni Leviste, rower Benjie Tolentino, and shooter Jasmine Luis. Marathoner Roy Vence had his Olympics stint in Atlanta, too is traveling to Busan.
The all-star cast from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), which is seeking to end the country’s 40-year title famine in the Asiad, is also in the 327-strong RP delegation that is seeking to surpass its one-gold, five-silver, 12-bronze haul in the previous Asiad in Bangkok four years ago. Filipino sports officials have expressed confidence the Filipino athletes would perform beyond expectations in Busan.
Earlier, the Catholic Church threw its support to national athletes bound for the Busan Games set for Sept. 29-Oct. 14. In a message sent through Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman Eric R. Buhain, the Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin said: "We join the entire Filipino nation in praying for our contingent who will be participating in the Asian Games."
"Let us display to the whole world not only our athletic excellence but also our camaraderie and honesty in sports," Cardinal Sin said. "Let the Philippine team show forth the best of every Filipino. Your commitment and diligence amaze us. Your unity and discipline inspire us."
Billiards was first played in the Asian Games in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, and the national team promptly delivered. The sport was responsible for the delegation’s lone gold medal in 1998 courtesy of Romeo Villanueva and Gandy Valle in 9-ball doubles. Now, it is fancied to win at least two golds with Reyes and Bustamante in the team. Reyes, who recently won the International Challenge of Champions Classic in the US, is being eyed to play for the 8-ball. Bustamante, whose dramatic runner-up finish in last month’s world pool championship made the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines change its mind about inserting him in the roster, is to play 9-ball doubles with 2001 SEA Games 9-ball champion Antonio Lining. The team also has 2001 SEAG 8-ball winner Lee Van Corteza and former Asian Snooker champion Marlon Manalo.
Next to billiards, wushu was the most productive sport in Bangkok with two silvers and two bronzes. Rosales, the world’s top cudgel artist in 1997 and silver winner in the Bangkok Asiad, is back to lead the 10-man wushu team, which underwent three months of training in China.
Pasiwat, Folayang and Nganhayna are also expected to deliver after their third place finishes in the 1st Sanshou-Wushu World Cup in Shanghai, China. The team also has SEAG veterans Arvin Ting, Bobby Co and Lily So in its fold. The 12 taekwondo jins, trained by Korean mentor Kim Tae-hong, a former world champion himself, are all capable of winning medals in Busan.
Aside from Cruz, Geisler, Ditan and Go, the squad boasts of Asian championships silver medalists Dindo Simpao and Veronica Domingo, and third-placers Daleen Cordero, Sally Solis and Margarita Bonifacio in its line-up. Taekwondo accounted for a silver and three bronzes in Bangkok.
Although it delivered only one bronze in 1998, bowling is expected to do better in Busan, especially after snaring four golds, six silvers and a bronze in the 2001 SEAG.
Nepomuceno, who is coming back from a wrist surgery that sidelined him for almost two years, showed his readiness to lead the team by winning the recent Korea International tournament in Busan.
Del Rosario looms as the best bet in the women’s side as she placed second in last year’s Bowling World Cup. Others in the roster are SEAG multi-medalist Leonardo Rey, Asian Tour campaigners Biboy Rivero, Chester King, CJ Suarez, Cecilia Yap, Irene Garcia-Benitez and World Youth tournament campaigners Liza Clutario and Kathlyn Ann Torres.
Boxing, meanwhile, is raring to bounce back from its measly one-bronze output in Bangkok. The boxers have seen action in Poland, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Finland, Thailand, Malaysia, Greece and Bosnia since October 2001 and have went home with medals around their necks. The 13-man RP athletics team will be led by long-distance expert Eduardo Buenavista, middle-distance master John Lozada and long jump specialist Lerma Bulauitan.
The RP tracksters will be aiming to win the first Asian Games track gold for the country in 16 years. For the record, the last time the Philippines won an Asiad gold on the track was in 1986 when former Asia’s track queen Lydia de Vega ruled the 100-meter event.
An Olympic veteran, an Asian Games medalist, a fearless Fil-American and a couple of young, gifted fighters in the lighter divisions will carry the heavy load for the Philippine boxing team out to create a major impact in Busan.
Brin, who saw action in the 2002 Sydney Olympics and a veteran of the last two Asiads, will compete in the light-welterweight class, and will act as the leader of the eight-man squad determined to erase bitter memories of its past failures in the international arena. Also considered as pillars of the squad known as Team Caltex are lightweight Anthony Igusquiza, a bronze medalist in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, and light-middle Chris Camat, who had to leave a steady job in the US last year just to join the national team.
Lightfly Harry Tanamor and flyweight Violito Payla, however, are tipped to emerge as the brightest medal prospects come fight time as the two fighters, both in their early 20s and weighing just over a hundred pounds, seem to carry the heavier punch among their counterparts.
The country won three gold medals in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games courtesy of Mansueto Velasco, Elias Recaido and Reynaldo Galido. It won just a single bronze in 1998 through featherweight Eric Canoy then failed to win any medal in the Sydney Olympics and in last year’s Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.
