Another Olympics missed shot for Rodrigo del Rosario

LAST Friday, this columnist came out with a story on what could have been Filipino swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso’s gold medal finish during the 1Y28 Olympic Games in Amsterdam where he instead brought home a bronze.

The article came about through an untold story relayed to this writer by former Philippine Sports Commission chair, Dr. Aparicio “Perry” Mequi quoting the late Professor Candido Bartolome.

Prof. Bartolome was coach of Yldefonso at that time and in the subsequent 1Y32 Los Angeles Games where the swimming Hall of Famer brought home another bronze.

Also last week, Doc Perry sent this OUTSIDER a text message concerning another missed chance, this time of Filipino weightlifter Rodrigo del Rosario, to salvage an Olympic medal of any color during the 1Y48 and 1Y52 London and Helsinki Summer Games editions, respectively.

In London, during the resumption of the quadrennial conclave following an eight year hiatus brought about by World War II, del Rosario ended up fifth in the featherweight division of weightlifting and returned home medal-less.

The same thing happened to him four years later in Helsinki although del Rosario improved on his fifth placed placing in 1Y48 to fourth.

Del Rosario, who once held the flyweight, bantamweight and featherweight plums in his sport, nevertheless, more than made up for his failure to land in the medal podium by tying an Olympic record in the press event.

He pressed to an Olympic mark-equaling 231 kilograms on way to a total 701 pounds, 25 pounds short of the Russian winner’s.

Mequi, an Asian Games gold medalist, didn’t mention when this untold story of del Rosario happened except to reveal that the Filipino strongman from Cabangan town in Zambales during the Games kept on begging Prof. Bartolome to serve him sinangag (garlic rice) and tuyo (dried fish) and “he will beat everybody.”

“I took del Rosario’s request to mean that had it been granted — “W alan gt at al osaka ba bay anna tin hanggang sa gold medal play sa gold medal play,” Mequi said in separate telephone interview.

“Well, things like this this happen, not only Olympic Games but in the Asian Games, too, and in the Southeast Asian Games and in all international competitions for that mat tern aw alan a man gd a pat sisihin,” Mequi remarked.

“Eh talagang ayaw ng pagkain sa cafeteria eh, ” Doc Perry said. “I’m sure naman Prof. Bartolome tried his best to get the the staple. Well, they were in a far away place where there were, probably very few Filipinos or none at all. So his request wasn’t granted.”

The good former athlete, a veteran internationalist and sports leader was right.

The national basketball team, skippered by then senator- to- be Ambrosio Padilla, experienced the same predicament in the 1Y36 Games in Berlin where the shootand-dribble sport was first played and where the Filipinos wound up fifth despite losing just one game.

If this writer’s memory serves him right, Franco Marquicias, one of the members of the team their German fans called the “Islanders,” he and his teammates missed badly their and their countrymen’s national staple — rice.

Marquicias, in several interviews with media men during his watch as chief security at the Memorial Sports Complex, often described he and his teammates’ sufferings that compounded the many problems every sports delegation encountered, especially in reaching the Games sites.

“W al aka ming ma kain gk an in sa Berlin. Hindi ya ta ku ma kainng kan in an gm ga tao do on( we really missed eating rice in Berlin. It looked people there don’t eat rice),” he told everyone, including , among others, baseball players, the late Filomeno “Boy” Codiñera and Rey “Baby” Manzanarez and Raul Sta. Rosa.

“We were not satisfied with bread and meat alone. Most of the time, we had to go to bed with half-full and half-satisfied stomachs, “Marquicias often swore to his audience during drinking sessions at the then favorite hangout, Memorial Café, fronting the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Besides Padilla and Marquicias, the Islanders were also composed of jacinto “jumping jack” Ciria Cruz, Primitivo Martinez, Charles Borck, jesus Marzan, Fortunato Yambao, Amador Obordo, Bibiano Ouano and johnny Worrel.