FORMER national athletic standout and Southeast Asian Games long jump queen Elma Muros-Posadas could not contain her glee when she was informed that she was among the latest batch of outstanding sports performers set to be inducted into the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame.
“Grabe po ang tuwa ko. Talagang napaiyak ako na hindi maintindihan. Hindi ko po inaasahan ako,” Posadas said of her latest citation that served as a capstone to her 20 years as an athlete that began in the 1981 Manila Southeast Asian Games and ended with the 2001 Malaysia SEA Games.
“Baka ibinigay na rin talaga ni Lord at malaking pasalamat talaga na mapasama sa mga bigatin sa Hall of Fame,” the pride of Magdiwang, Romblon said two decades after bowing out of the limelight.
She was included in the list of new Hall of Famers that included basketball legend Robert “Big J” Jaworski, Seoul Olympic Games bowing gold medalist Arianne Cerdena and boxers Leopoldo Serrantes and Roel Velasco, who won bronze medals in the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympiad, respectively.
Posadas, who is married to national coach Jojo Posadas, felt blessed to be included into the official pantheon of local sports heroes considering that among the latest PSHOF inductees is three-time Asian Games and Olympic Games veteran Rogelio Onofre, who is still alive at 82 and based in San Francisco.
“Sabi ko nga, ipauubaya ko na muna sa mga matatanda (na mapili sa Hall of Fame) pero napili pa ako ngayon kasama si Jaworski na idol ng sambayanang Pilipino,” said the 54-year-old Posadas. “Lahat sila bigatin.”
Jojo Posadas, who has been Elma’s coach for virtually her entire athletic career, shared his wife’s delight, saying: “Eto ang complete achievement na hinahangad ng mga athlete at kanilang coach. Eto ‘yung isama-sama mong lahat ng pinaghirapan bilang atleta.
“Eto na yong sukli sa lahat ng paghihirap sa bayan, ‘yung finale. Very proud kami ni Elma na matanggap sa Philippine Sports Hall of Fame.”
Since making her national team debut in the 1981 Manila Games, Posadas has had an illustrious career marked by silver medals in the women’s long jump in the 1983 Kuwait and 1989 New Delhi Asian athletic championships.
She had a dominant stretch in her pet event in the SEA Games, winning eight of them, plus a gold each in the 100 and 200-meter runs, one in the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles, and two in women’s heptathlon.
Her swan song in the SEA Games ended on a golden note in the 2001 edition in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, ruling the women’s heptathlon with a combined score of 5,059 points.
“I wanted my younger teammate Percela Molina to win the gold but she sacrificed herself so that the Vietnamese athlete who was pursuing us would not prevail,” Mosadas recalled of her last SEA Games stint, where Molina took the silver (4,687) while Vietnamese Vu Bic Huong (4,427) settled for the bronze.
