HIDILYN DIAZ-NARANJO finally won gold at the world championships, Ernest John “EJ” Obiena cleared the bar to become No. 3 in the world, Alexandra “Alex” Eala proudly spoke in Tagalog at Flushing Meadows and the country—and Asia—lost an icon, Lydia de Vega.
The year 2022 turned out as an extension of Filipino athletes’ success on the global stage from last year’s amazing Tokyo Olympics, producing one world champion after another, to name some—karate’s Junna Tsukii and jiu-jitsu’s Meggie and Kimberly Anne Custodio.
And the Filipinas, formerly known as Malditas, punched a ticket to the Women’s World Cup, unprecedented in a country where football doesn’t rank up there among sports well-loved by Filipinos.
“Thank God!” Diaz-Naranjo immediately posted on her Facebook page minutes after ruling the women’s 55 kgs category—barely 17 months from winning the country’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in July 26, 2021—at the Bogota world weightlifting championships early in December.
Diaz-Naranjo did it with a flourish—93 kgs in snatch, 114 kgs in clean and jerk and 207 kgs in total lift—to sweep her division in the worlds where a gold is awarded in each of the two lift variations and the total lift.
It was mission accomplished for the 31-year-old four-time Olympian—she has won basically everything there is to win in sports—Olympics, world championships, Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games.
Months before Diaz-Naranjo’s success, Obiena made his own statement at the world athletics championships in Eugene, Oregon, last July.
He leapt to 5.94 meters to finish behind pole vault wonder Armand Duplantis and American Chris Nilsen, an achievement that kept him in the company of the world’s elite.
But Obiena had to labor first against his own athletics federation before going on a winning binge at the Vietnam SEA Games and in the outdoor season in Europe.
His conflict with the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association had to go through an ugly mediation that eventually led to a settlement.
“We at the POC fully appreciate his focus, outlook and attitude as an athlete,” said Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, who fought for Obiena’s welfare during those difficult times. “He needs all the support possible, like for all the other Filipino athletes.”
Over in New York in September, a 17-year-old Eala was in tears as she spoke to the crowd at Flushing Meadows holding her US Open girls’ juniors trophy—the first-ever victory by a Filipino in a tennis major.
“Buong puso ko itong pinaglaban hindi lang para sa sarili ko kundi para makatulong din ako sa kinabukasan ng Philippine tennis,” Eala told the crowd and multitude others on television. “Hindi lang ’to panalo ko, panalo natin lahat. Thank you.”
What the Azkals have yet to accomplish the Filipinas did by qualifying for the Women’s World Cup that will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand in July and August 2023—also a first for the Philippines.
Led by the impeccable Sarina Bolden, the Filipinas qualified for women’s football biggest stage after making the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Women’s Asian Cup last January in India.
Tsukii, always jolly and smiling, was a fearsome combatant at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, last July where she won gold—the second for the country in the competition after pool artist Carlo Biado in 2017 in Wrocław, Poland—in women’s kumite -50 kgs of karate.
Women power was also evident in 2022 with victories by Ochoa and Custodio at the world jiu-jitsu championships in Abu Dhabi last November and Jovelyn Gonzaga and Sisi Rondina at the World Beach Pro Tour last December in Subic.
Asian champion Vanessa Sarno also added credence to the tag as the heir apparent to Diaz-Naranjo by winning gold in Asian Junior Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan—a similar accomplishment pulled off by Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Carlo Paalam who fought in the next higher weight class at bantamweight to dominate at the Asian Elite Men’s and Women’s Championships also last November in Amman, Jordan.
But the country and all of Asia wept over the demise of former Asian Sprint Queen and the Darling of Asian Athletics Lydia de Vega, who for at least three years, hid from the public that she’s been fighting breast cancer. She succumbed on August 10.
Carlos Yulo didn’t get any gold medal this time but still made his mark with silver in vault and bronze in parallel bars at the world artistic gymnastics in Liverpool in November.
Rubilen Amit, Carlo Biado and Johann Chua sustained a world tradition by Filipinos dominating billiards with their conquest at the Predator World 10-Ball Team Championship in Klagenfurt, Austria.
Pro boxing went on a skid in 2022. After having as many as five world champions, the year wasn’t that generous to Filipino pugilists who lost their belts atop the ring—Jerwin Ancajas, Mark Magsayo, Rene Cuarto and Nonito Donaire Jr. leaving the country no legitimate world champion at the moment.
At the Philippine Basketball Association, San Miguel Beer regained the Philippine Cup while at the collegiate front, it was Letran through and through in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Oddly, two University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball finals were held in the same year with University of the Philippines beating Ateneo de Manila University in May for the Season 84 crown and the Blue Eagles getting back at the Fighting Maroons middle of December to reign supreme in Season 85.
That oddity was borne out of restrictions wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic, which, obviously, waned significantly in 2022 with majority of Filipinos getting the vaccine.
Thus, it’s almost back to pre-Covid practices—social distancing is passe, face masks are optional and sports is back almost everywhere.
Proof of Covid’s defeat was Ilocos Sur’s hosting of the Philippine Sports Commission-Batang Pinoy National Championships where at least 6, 000 delegates—3,000 of them athletes aged 15 under—converged in Vigan City and Bantay for in-person competitions.
And because it was a general elections year, a changing of the guard—twice, in fact—occurred at the PSC. Veteran sportsman William Ramirez stepped down co-terminus with former President Rodrigo Duterte and in his place was former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala.
But politics always is unpredictable side and Eala had to give way to former Alaska basketball player Richard “Dicky” Bachmann.
Tolentino said that country’s success in sports cascaded from the golden year that was 2021—where the Philippines won its first ever Olympics gold medal through weightlifter Diaz-Naranjo, two silvers through boxers Paalam and Nesthy Petecio and a bronze through another boxer, Eumir Felix Marcial. That was the most successful campaign by the Philippines in a close to century of participation in the Olympics.
“It’s part of the extended Golden Years of Philippine sports,” Tolentino told BusinessMirror, referring to the amazing Tokyo Olympics campaign. “There are so many athletes who brought pride and glory to our country. We are hoping we’ll see the same, or better, results in 2023.”