WARRIOR MENTALITY
He is a fighter. He never gave up. He never ran out of hope
Just last year, Mikoff Manduriao had no idea if he can ever play again.
But now, he’s already a champion — with a shiny gold medal hanging around his neck.
The 31-year-old Manduriao did the unbelievable when he defied a career-threatening spine injury to lead the national squad to a gold medal in the men’s team soft tennis event of the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games yesterday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
Manduriao connived with Dheo Talatayod in taking down Teerapat Suijaritplee and Torlarp Songweera of Thailand, 5-3, to a victory in the men’s doubles that came at the heels of Joseph Arcilla’s, 4-1, win over Kawin Yannarit in the men’s singles.
The only casualties for the home squad in this tie were Noel Damian and Mark Alcoseba, who fell prey to Sakan Thansiriroj and Thanarit Surarak in the first doubles match, 5-3.
With that, the Philippines captured a golden sweep of the sport following the victory of Bien Zoleta in the women’s singles followed by another win in connivance with her sister, Bambi, in the women’s doubles.
This is the first time that soft tennis is played in the prestigious biennial meet since 2011 and Philippine Soft Tennis Federation president Jeff Tamayo was elated with the performance of his wards.
“This is a team effort. We worked hard for it,” said Tamayo, who brought the squad to a two-week training to Chinese Taipei in preparation for their return to the SEA Games after an eight-year lull.
“What we overcame was a very seasoned and very good Thai team. We didn’t expect to beat them, but we did. So I’m congratulating my players. They simply didn’t quit and played their hearts out in making sure that we would sweep all three events.” Still, the day belonged to Manduriao. After suffering a spine injury last year, Manduriao was sidelined for almost six months.
But he patiently worked his way back in shape until he could finally hold a racket again.
“I had a disc bulge and, according to doctors, it could be because of too much playing or due to wrong stretch. With that, I was sidelined for six months and I thought my tennis career was over,” said Manduriao, a former University of Perpetual Help System Dalta netter.
“My doctors barred me from playing. They told me that there’s a tendency that the disc could grow or it could completely fall off.”
“The worst case scenario for me at that time is if my disc would get removed, my right leg would be paralyzed, meaning, I won’t be able to play forever.”
But Manduriao took a leap of faith.
He bravely underwent operation and came up with a good therapy. “I had an indoscopic operation in my back where they put in a tube and then they would cut the water that will come out of my spine before closing it again,” he said, adding that at that point, he was no longer thinking of playing as all he wanted was to function normally again.
Tamayo said seeing Manduriao on top of the medal podium was like a dream.
“I was the happiest for him,” he said, adding that he had to limit the number of events to make sure that Manduriao and other local bets would be fresh in the finals.
My doctors barred me from playing.
“He is a fighter. He never gave up. He never ran out of hope. He’s somebody that other injured athletes should emulate.”