Highs and lows: The year that was in sports

BITTERSWEET, that's how sports was in the country in 2017.

New hope sprung when the Philippine Sports Institute (PSI) of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) was launched January 16 this year with the aim of bringing grassroots sports development to the countryside but Filipinos all over the world were shocked when Jeff Horn beat legendary Manny Pacquiao in a bloody Battle of Brisbane via a 12-round unanimous decision to capture the WBO world welterweight title last July in Australia.

The PSI helped revive the Children's Games for Muslims, Christians and Lumads in Davao City in May while war broke out in Marawi City. This sparked the interest of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), citing PSC and PSI for the program being the only government agency in the world to make such an initiative as other Children's Games are spearheaded by non-government organizations.

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William "Butch" Ramirez said the Children's Games made over 10,000 kids happy in other parts of the country.

"Unesco appreciated us for that," the PSC chief said.

Aside from the Children's Games, PSI also conducted a series of consultative meetings, coaches' education, tribal games, talent identification and sports science seminars, among others, in different cities and provinces. The PSC-Pacquiao Amateur Boxing Cup, a grassroots sports development program for boxing, was also launched early this month in General Santos City and will have 14 other stops before the national championships.

But the Philippine National Games (PNG) earlier set December 10 to 16 in Cebu was moved to April next year instead. The Batang Pinoy Games Mindanao qualifying in Oroquieta City was cancelled due to the declaration of Martial Law but the Batang Pinoy Visayas Games pushed through in Dumaguete City.

Everybody's darling Rio Olympics weightlifting silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz of Zamboanga City snatched a silver and bronze in the 2017 International Weightlifting Federation World Championships in Anaheim, California. She also got silver in the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (Aimag) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Elite, pro and more

Davao City's Lee Vann Corteza crowned himself bottleneck.net 77th World 14.1 Tournament champion, shocking four-time champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany, 300-183, in their titular showdown at Steinway Billiards, Astoria, New York City last October 9.

The Dabawenyo cue master from Mintal also won the World Pool Series-Highrock Challenge, beating Loli Wen of Chinese Taipei, 11-3, in the finals. Corteza also brought home the 2017 US Open Straightpool Championship title at Table Magic in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, USA following a 200-149 win over Hohmann.

Jerwin "Pretty Boy" Ancajas of Panabo City, who started his amateur boxing career in Davao City, retained his International Boxing Federation (IBF) World superflyweight title in a six-round stoppage of Jamie Conlan at The SSE Arena in Belfast on November 11, 2017. This after he scored a knockout win over Teiru Kinoshita in seventh round last July 2 in Brisbane. He will stake his belt on February 3, 2018 opposite Israel Gonzalez at the Bank of America Center in Texas.

Everybody's darling Rio Olympics weightlifting silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz of Zamboanga City snatched a silver and bronz in the 2017 International Weightlifting Federation World Championships in Anaheim, California. She also got silver in the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (Aimag) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Meanwhile, Philippines placed sixth overall in the 2017 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, collecting 24 gold medas, 33 silvers and 64 bronzes - the worst finish for the country in the biennial meet.

Davao City's very own Rexor Tacay clinched a karatedo silver while Sydney Sy Tancontian salvaged a judo bronze in her SEA Games debut.

Olympian boxer Charly Suarez of Davao del Norte got a bronze but Filipino-Japanese Mariya Takahashi, who studied a couple of years in Panabo City and whose mother is from Compostela Valley, copped gold in women's judo. Japan-based Takahashi, only 16, is among the elite national athletes who are eyed to win medals in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She recently annexed two golds in two separate tournaments in Japan and she took a silver in the Hong Kong Asian Open 2017.

Chess national master (NM) John Marvin Miciano, 17, of Davao City earned a Fide master (FM) title after an impressive finish in the 2017 Penang Heritage City International Chess Open 2017 in Malaysia. He will try to earn two more international master (IM) norms in 2018 to become a certified IM.

In the Kadayawan sa Dabaw Festival invitational basketball tournament at Almendras Gym Davao City Recreation Center, De La Salle University (DLSU) Green Archers and Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws figured in a basketball brawl to the disappointment of peace-loving Dabawenyos.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio, for her part, bared the city's hosting of the Alveo Ironman 70.3 on March 25, 2018. The target registrants of 1,500 was hit only few days after registration opened.

The mayor also announced the city's hosting of the Davao Region Athletic Association (Davraa) Meet 2018 and the 2019 Palarong Pambansa. Facilities at the Davao City-UP Sports Complex in Tugbok District are already taking shape for the hosting of these two events.

Beefing up the city's hosting preparations, University of Mindanao also inaugurated its Olympic-sized rubberized track oval that is eyed to host handful of sports events in Davraa Meet and Palaro.

Dabawenyo athletes scored several victories in different fields and in different meets like the Palarong Pambansa, Private Schools Athletic Association (Prisaa) National Championship, Scuaa Meet, National University Games as well as in the SEA ParaGames, making us all the more excited about 2018.

Hail to all athletes!

Happy New Year!

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