FORMER Project: Gintong Alay executive director Michael Keon on Monday night cited some of the aspects of the successful sports program that he handled in the late seventies to mid-eighties that Philippine Sports Commission chairman Dickie Bachmann hopes to emulate.
“It was a combination of everything — it was the coaching, the training camp, it was the support that the athletes got. We had the best equipment, and we tried to have the best (international) exposure,” Keon recalled during the San Miguel Corporation-Philippine Sportswriters Association Awards Night at the Diamond Hotel grand ballroom.
Now the mayor of Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Keon disclosed that he recently met with Bachmann and talked on the overall outlook of Philippine sports.
“It was a very good meeting,” he said, “and he (Bachmann) is very knowledgeable. He knows he has his back against the wall. Maraming problema. But he is open to receiving good advice. We reached an understanding and I will advise him every now and then.”
Project: Gintong Alay ushered in a local sports renaissance, producing many outstanding athletes, including track and field standouts Lydia de Vega and Elma Muros-Posadas, who were feted by the PSA.
De Vega, the lithe and lovely sprinter from Meycauayan, Bulacan was enshrined in the PSA Hall of Fame while Posadas, the “amazon” from Magdiwang, Romblon was honored with the PSA Lifetime Achievement Award.
“I remember Elma Muros who was my athlete in Gintong Alay. If I recall, she won eight gold medals in the long jump in the Southeast Asian Games,” Keon said in the grand affair presented by the PSC and Cignal TV and backed by the POC, Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham Tolentino, Milo, Smart, MVP Sports Foundation, Rain or Shine, 1Pacman Rep. Mikee Romero, Philippine Basketball Association, OKBet, ICTSI, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
He also mentioned sportscaster Dyan Castillejo, a Gintong Alay “baby” in lawn tennis.
Other notable athletes of the program were boxers Leopoldo Cantancio and Leopoldo Serantes, swimmers Christine Jacob and Willy Wilson, weightlifter Jaime Sebastian and men’s 400-meter ace Isidro del Prado.
Thanks to Project: Gintong Alay, Filipino bets finished third overall in the country’s inaugural staging of the Southeast Asian Games in 1981 with a haul of 55 gold, 55 silver and 47 bronze medals.
Pinoy athletes did even better in the regional meet in Singapore two years later, taking runner-up honors with a tally of 49 gold, 48 silver and 54 bronze medals.
Wilson was the country’s most bemedalled athlete in the Singapore Games with four gold medals while Jacob and archer Cherrie Valera had two apiece.
Keon also said there are lots of local outstanding athletic talents just waiting to be discovered who can excel on the world stage.
“There is so much talent in this country that falls through the cracks in the system and it is really sayang,” Keon said.
A former athlete himself, Keon was grateful for the opportunity in shaping the celebrated athletic career of “Diay,” De Vega’s nickname, and lamented she could have attained greater heights had she focused on the 400-meter race instead of the glamorous 100 and 200-meter sprint events.
“The first competition that Gintong Alay had was the UAAP vs. Gintong Alay which was in May 1980. Lydia de Vega ran the 400 meters, not the 100, not the 200. She broke the Asian Games record, the SEA Games record, and the Philippine record of 54.6 seconds at the age of 16,” he recalled.
“Now, you all know that physical athletes mature at 22 to 26. Now, if Lydia had continued to train in the 400 meters, she would have easily clocked 50 seconds for the 400 which would put her in an Olympic final… she would have been in my eyes an Olympic champion,” Keon said.
