Give And Go
By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Competition in the 29th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is now in the homestretch, and so far it has been a difficult one for Team Philippines, which has been stuck in the middle of the medal race and set to miss out on its goal of 50 gold medals in the biennial regional sporting meet. Worse, it is even poise to post one of its poorer showings in the Games as far as medals are concerned.
But while it has been a struggle for the Philippines in this year’s edition of the SEA Games, there were still some performance highlights from our team worth underscoring, one of which was fashioned out on ice, care of the Philippine national ice hockey team.
Featured in the Games for the first time, the Philippines made history by winning the first-ever gold in men’s ice hockey, defeating Thailand, 5-4, last Thursday in the gold-medal game played at the Empire City Arena in Damsara Perdana.
The gold conquest was a culmination of what was a great run for the Philippine national hockey team that saw it sweep its assignments in the lead-up to the finals — whipping Indonesia, 12-0, in its opening game before routing Singapore, 7-2.
The Philippines then had it tough versus host Malaysia but delivered in the end to win in a shoot-out, 2-1, and then beat Thailand for the gold.
Philippine players were also in their element throughout the competition with guys like Paul Sanchez, Steven Fuglister, Lenard Lancero and Carl Michael Montano figuring prominently in the scoring category.
But apart from the history-making that our ice hockey team made in the SEA Games, making it all the more special was that it was not really expected.
Of course, every time you go into international competitions abroad the aim is always to win.
But compared to say men’s basketball, boxing and taekwondo, ice hockey, entering the Games, was not top-of-mind gold medal source.
Excited we were for having an ice hockey team here in Tropical Philippines, fondly referred to as “Philippine Mighty Ducks,” in reference to the popular Disney movie, but if we fell short it was okay, I am sure most of us thought.
Heck, even when the team was starting to win in the Games there were still doubters if we can actually pull it off especially up against a solid Thai squad in the final game.
But lo and behold, from start to finish, our men in skates and sticks broke ice and showed who were kings in Southeast Asian ice hockey.
Not bad for a team which started out as a group that had hockey for a hobby in a skating rink inside a Manila mall and developed their skills.
The Philippines actually has a national hockey team, nay, a gold medal-winning national hockey team. Wow!
Congratulations team and thanks for the gold medal apple.
Michael Angelo S. Murillo has been a columnist since 2003. He is a BusinessWorld reporter covering the Sports beat.
