40. AMELITA ALANES: PH Olympian, Track Wonder of the 70s

AMELITA ALANES-SABERON earned 2 Asian Games Medals and was a
quarterfinalist in the 200 M. race at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Dubbed as one of the “Track Wonders” of Southern Tagalog Athletic Association (STAA) in 1970s, AMELITA ALANES, reigned as the country’s premiere sprinter in the 1970s, winning in the Asian Championships, the Asian Games, and becoming a member of the national athletics team that competed at the tragedy-ridden Munich Olympics in 1972.

She was born in La Carlota, Negros Occidental on 28 Feb. 1952, the daughter of farmer parents. She had her start running barefoot in her hometown in 1966, because her parents could not afford the spiked shoes for sprinting. Yet, she often beat bigger opponents, She then progressed to inter-scholastic meets, where she established 3 junior records.

That was how the shoeless, but fleet-footed Alanes was spotted by Gov. Isidro Rodriguez and Southern Tagalog athletic officials. They offered to train her for inclusion in their much vaunted talent pool. The athletes from Southern Tagalog Athletic Association (STAA) were then considered powerhouse at the Bureau of Public Schools-Interscholastic Athletics Association Games (BPISAA)—which would later be renamed Palarong Pambansa in 1974.

On many occasions, STAA had captured the major championships of the BPISAA Games, lording over tough competition from Western Visayas and Mindanao. Southern Tagalog’s strengths lie in football, basketball and athletics. Alanes joined the Rizal’s women’s athletic team---and her baptism of fire in big league athletics began immediately.

Armed with just her 3 junior records and regional wins, the 18 year old was among the last to be chosen for the 1970 Asiad line-up.

She would come home with a Silver Medal in the 200 meter dash, the highest honor won in Bangkok, by the country’s track and field delegation. She recalls the moments leading to her magnificent win in the Asiad. She had raced in the 200 m. heats, placing second to the formidable Olympic medalist Chi Cheng of Chinese Taipei, who came in at 23.7 secs., a new Asian record, despite pulled muscles in both legs,

Later, it was announced that the frontrunner Chi Cheng was pulling out of the 200 meter finals due to her injury. At the Supachalasai Stadium, she remembers thinking “May pag-asa na rin kahit konti”, as she set her feet on the starting blocks. As the gun sounded, Alanes burst into action and sped off, hands flailing, and reaching the finish bunched up with other runners.

She was uncertain if she had done enough. But when the electronic scoreboard flashed the results, Alanes saw her name in 2^nd place, clocking 25.2 secs. behind Keiko Yamada of Japan  (25 secs.), with Indonesia’s Carolina Rieuwpassa coming in 3^rd (25.4 secs.). She remembers sobbing on the shoulders of her coach and being swamped by her fellow runners.

The Philippine performance at the Bangkok Games turned out to be one of the poorest for the country, with Ricardo Fortaleza’s lone boxing gold. The track delegation could only contribute 3 Bronzes and 1 Silver—courtesy of Alanes, who saved the day for the Philippines. Moving forward upon her return, Alanes resumed her training with her team mates to prepare for the biggest competition in her life—this time, at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

The 1972 BPISAA Games in Vigan held for a week starting on April 11, served as a tryout to the Olympics scheduled later in the year in August. Once more, the Southern Tagalog Athletic Association came ready, armed with its finest athletes, among them,  the Rizal  women’s athletic team. The quartet of track wonders included Lucila Salao, Aida Mantawel, Rosalinda Yumol, and the Asian Games medalist Amelita Alanes. Alanes, with the best credentials, did not disappoint.

Alanes competed in 3 individual events: 100 m., 200 m. and 400 m. She won them all, earning 3 Golds and cementing her reputation as the country’s top sprinter. Together with Salao, Mantawel and Yumol, they won berths in the Philippine National Team that were sent to Munich in August for the 20th Olympic competitions.

The infamous Munich Summer Games were held from Aug. 26 to Sep. 12.  Alanes was entered in her favorite events: the 100 and 200 meter dash, and the team event, 4 x 100 m. relay with Salao, Mantawel and Yumol. In her century dash heat, she ran alongside the East German amazon, Renate Stecher. Alanes made a quick exit, timing in at inexplicably at slow 12.37 secs. As expected Stecher topped that heat and advanced all the way to the Finals to win the Gold with a world record time of 11.06 seconds.

Alanes fared better in the 200 meters, timing in at 24.98 secs. in 7^th place, which was good enough to put her into the Quarterfinal rounds. She was eliminated in Round 1, clocking in at 25.28, and thus did not  advance to the semifinals. Stecher, again, won the 200 m. finals Gold in convincing fashion, with an amazing 22.1 secs. clocking. Alanes also lucked out in the 4 x100 m. relay race, as the team was disqualified in the 1^st heat.

 When Alanes returned to the Philippines, she set her sights on the inaugural 1973 Asian Athletics Championships in Manila. There, at the Rodriguez Sports Center in Marikina, the track wonder won the Gold with an 11.6 seconds in the 100m. ahead of 2 Japanese Michiko Morita and Sayo Yamato who clocked identical 12 secs. 

In 1978, the now married Amelita Alanes-Saberon competed in her last Asian Games, also in Bangkok, Thailand. The 8^th edition of these games, held from Dec. 14-19, were controversial because they were not sanctioned by the International Amateur Athletics Federation due to the exclusion of Israel by the organizers. The Philippines had a dismal showing in Bangkok, with no gold medal to show. Still, Alanes, who was entered in the 4 x 100 M. Relay along with Lucila Tolentino-Salao, Rosalinda Yumol and Lydia Silva-Netto salvaged the Bronze in 47 seconds flat, behind Thailand (Gold, 46.20 secs.) and Japan (Silver, 46. 78 secs.).

Alanes-Saberon registered her personal best of 11.4 seconds for the 100 meter dash in 1974. It stood as a National Record for 13 long years before Lydia de Vega broke it at the 1987 Southeast Asian Games, with a time of 11.28 secs.  

SOURCES

Olympic database, Amelita Alanes, https://www.olympiandatabase.com/index.php?id=53690&L=1

The Filipino Athlete, The Munich Olympics, Oct. 1972

39. Swimmer RENÉ AMABUYOK, 1948 Olympian, Asian Games Medalist, Swim Coach

One of the country’s finest post-war swimmers to emerge from the far South was RENÉ  TALITI AMABUYOK, born 10 July 1923, of Japanese-Filipino lineage, in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga. At the age of 10, he took up swimming, and became so proficient that he progressed to competitive swimming in his high school years at Zamboanga High School.

After his graduation, the young Rene moved to Manila and enrolled at Mapua Institute in 1939 to take up Physical Education. There, he honed his swimming skills as a member of the Mapua Swimming Team, helping win championship trophies for his school in many inter-collegiate meets.

When the Japanese-led global war reached the Pacific in 1941, Rene dropped out of Mapua and transferred to the National College of Physical Education (N.C.P.E.), a school founded in 1932 by the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (P.A.A.F.). There, he secured his certificate in Physical Education.

During all these years, Rene and his family kept a low profile being partly Japanese. When the defeat of Japan became imminent, the family Filipinized their surname of Koyubama, reversing the spelling to ‘Amabuyok’, to avert any possible ill feelings towards their Japanese link, even if they considered themselves as true and loyal Filipinos.

Sure enough, when the war came to a close and a sense normalcy began to settle in the country as re-building began in earnest, Rene Koyubama, now known as Rene Amabuyok, resumed his swimming career determined to represent the Philippines and raise its flag abroad. By this time, he was turning in incredible times in national meets, especially in the breaststroke, backstroke and the new butterfly events.

Though Amabuyok never dreamed he would someday be a great swimmer, his qualification to the lean 26-man Philippine Olympic team gave him an opportunity to prove his worth and stretch his potential. Amabuyok was just one of 3 swimmers sent to compete in London held at the end of July in 1948. UST’s Jacinto Cayco and Letran’s Sambiao Basanung completed the swim team.

Amabuyok was entered in only one event—the 200 meter breaststroke the same event at the 1928 Olympics where Teofilo Yldefonso made history by claiming Bronze, the 1^st Filipino Olympic medalist. To get to the finals, he had to hurdle the First Round of Heats that would determine the Semifinalists.

The First Round consisted of 5 Heats; the first 2 finishers of each heat—plus the 6 fastest losers get to advance to the Semifinals. Amabuyok swam in Heat 1 and landed 4^th with a time of 2: 52.6 minutes. When the Semifinalists’ names were called, Amabuyok was one of them.

The Semifinals Round saw Amabuyok grouped again with U.S. Robert Sohl, who had swum with him and who had topped the First Round Heat 1. Amabuyok bettered his time to 2: 51.8 mins,, placing 6^th among 8 swimmers.

In the Semifinals, the first 3 fastest, plus the 2 fastest losers will fight it out for the Finals. When all the times of the 2 semifinal heat swimmers were tallied, Amabuyok found himself in 11^th place, and was thus eliminated. Still, his 11^th place finish among 32 swimmers was a creditable accomplishment.  In the end, the 200 m. breaststroke finals became an all-American finish, with Joseph Verdure (1^st), Keith Carter (2^nd) and Robert Sohl (3^rd) as winners,

London would be his first and last Olympics. His next competition was at the Manila-Hongkong Interport Meet of 1949 which the Philippines topped. Then the inaugural 1^st  Asian Games opened in New Delhi, India in 1951. There, Amabuyok was entered in his favorite 200 m. breaststroke event and won a Silver Medal in 2:54.8 minutes behind his team mate Jacinto Cayco, who won Gold in 2:54.4, a new games record.  

In his sterling swimming career, Amabuyok also mastered the new butterfly stroke, which only became an independent event beginning in 1956 at the Melbourne Olympics. He held the 100 m. butterfly record (1:14.8 mins.)  for 7 years (1950-1956), until his student, , teen sensation Freddie Elizalde broke it at a 1956 High School Boys swim league with a time of 1:12.6 mins.

After his retirement, Amabuyok became a coach of the Indians Swim Teams of the American School in Manila, handling both the girls and boys varsity teams. He led the teams to several significant wins in meets like those mounted by the Manila Athletic Association for Secondary Schools.

At the 1958 National Intersecondary School Meet, the American School, paced by the aforementioned Freddie Elizalde, captured the Boys Division  championship title to put an end to FEU’s domination of the tournament.

In inter-department school presentation, Coach Amabuyok, with his fine singing voice (he moonlit as a professional singer), would join the swimming team in musical productions. Off-season would find him either swimming at the Rizal Memorial pool or taking care of his wife and 7 children, 5 girls and 2 boys. It is interesting to note that one of her daughters, Arene Cecilia “Pinky” Anas Amabuyok became the Philippine beauty delegate to the 1968 Miss World Contest in London. She placed 5^th , the first time a Filipino reached the finals of the oldest beauty pageant in the world.

Asked about the pronouncement of her daughter’s supposed wish to become a nun—news that generated buzz around the world—coach Amabuyok said he knew nothing about his daughter becoming a nun. “She’s just like any other girl,” he said.

Amabuyok remained as a much-loved coach of the American School—now known as International School based in Makati—until his retirement. From the 70s onwards, there has been no news, nor any details of his passing—but swimmer, coach and Olympian Rene Amabuyok will always be known as a multi-faceted athlete whose love for mentoring young swimmers knows no bounds.

 SOURCES:

1948 London Olympics Official Report, LA84 Digital Library, https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll8/id/5717/

Rene Amabuyok, Olympedia

Photo Credits: Pinky A. Santos FB Page : (Coach Amabuyok, with Indian Swim Team of American School/ Amabuyok with Trophy)/ Rodante Sacdalan FB Page: (Rep Men’s Swimming Team 1^st Asian Games, New Delhi, India/ American School articles: “R. Amabuyok, Swim Coach”; “Swimming Season Starts”/ Nostalgia Manila, “ Amabuyok,Baker Rizal Swim Meet 1952”

38. My Most Thrilling Game: SEBASTIAN UGARTE, Champion Football Player, Graphic Magazine, 27 Nov. 1929

Here is a reproduced article from Philippine Graphic Magazine, from Nov. 27, 1929, part of "My Most Thrilling Game", a series of sports features based on interviews with our most popular athletes of the 1920s generation.

The name of SEBASTIAN UGARTE is familiar to all lovers of athletics. For one thing, while writing sports write-ups regularly for four publications and occasionally for two others—one of them GRAPHIC—he was usually seen wherever games were played. And for another thing, he figures in several branches of athletics.

But his fame lies in soccer football, which he began playing early in life—so early that by the time he was fifteen, he was already in the big leagues. He was for a long time a member of the La Salle combination, for fourteen consecutive years collegiate soccer champion of the Philippines. He has also played for the now defunct Circulo Recreativo, Club Filipino, Casino Español, last year’s champion Santo Tomas eleven, and some others. There can be little doubt that he is the best right-out in the country, for he can center a “cornered” pigskin with deadly precision, can dribble and pass skillfully, and has considerable force behind his kick.

In his sixteenth year, he was asked to join the Olympic team, but as they traveled to Osaka, his family objected on the ground of his youth. Later, however, he eventually became an Olympic player.

 “The most thrilling game I’ve ever played?” He considered the question for a minute or two before deciding: “I think that came about when I was with the All-Manila outfit which invaded Java a few years ago. We were playing then in Batavia, the capital, against the ‘Hercules’ aggregation—a team worthy of its name, for it was certainly a strong one.

 “The game began badly for us, and throughout the first half and the best portion of th second, all indications were to the effect that it would end that way too.

“The fight was heated enough and, for that matter, fundamentally even also. But somehow, they had the edge on us and whereas they failed repeatedly, we couldn’t manage to shoot the sphere between their goal posts. It seemed as if we were, to put it in soccer parlance, ‘dominated’. However, we didn’t lose hop and were resolved not to let the battel ease to the very end.

 “Ten minutes before the whistle blew for the last time, with the score three to nothing in favor of the Javanese team, a series of unexpected things began to happen. I don’t know what started them, but start they did.

 “Perhaps, we sort of became desperate and determined to make at least one goal before the game ended, fought like tigers. In any case, we surpassed all expectations . We made rush after rush, breaking through the Hercules defense again and again, the while checking all efforts of our opponents to advance and retaliate. And all in ten minutes—but believe me, within that short space of time was packed the thrill of years!

“To this day, I don’t know how we did it.”

Mr. Ugarte smiled humorously. “it was a miracle, really! From out the fury with which we attacked and the Javanese defended, a shot streak past the Javanese goal-keeper. Score 1-3. That was encouraging, perhaps electrifying, to the Filipinos. That lone tally inspired us. The furious mix-ups which followed found the sphere shooting into enemy goal twice in quick succession. The score was now 3-3.

 “The Javanese literally became ferocious at this state of the game, and we, with the coming of hope for victory, were no less fierce. In that atmosphere—one goal and a few fast fading minutes to make it—was defeat or victory.

 “The ball was soon sailing across the field---and in the direction of our own goal. The Javanese were determined to shoot another goal, and the ball was approaching the goal posts with lightning speed and deadly precision. A beautiful kick from the Javanese and the sphere shot straight between the posts. Our heart sank with that beautiful kick, but we hoped our own goal keeper would stop it—and he did. The ball sped back now into enemy territory and there followed one of the most desperate seconds of football I have ever played.

We got the ball so near the enemy goal posts that only a few feet separated us from victory. But the Javanese would not yield, but there followed a last second which gave us victory.”

SOURCES:

 GRAPHIC, 27 Nov. 1929 issue

De La Salle Alumni Association Sports Hall of Fame 1993

Photo: 1930 Far east games Foot ball team, wikimedia commons