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| 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 2nd place, clocking 25.2 secs. behind Keiko Yamada of Japan (25 secs.), with Indonesia’s Carolina Rieuwpassa coming in 3rd (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 7th 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 1st heat.
In 1978, the now married Amelita Alanes-Saberon competed in her last Asian Games, also in Bangkok, Thailand. The 8th 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
