26. Asia’s Amazon of Speed: MONA SULAIMAN, active 1957-1966

The greatest Filipina track athlete of the 60s decade was, without doubt, MONA SULAIMAN (b. 9 Jun. 1942/ d. 21 December 2017) came into the track scene beginning in 1957, when the stocky 15 year old ran barefooted in several races during a Cotabato fiesta and wiped out competition. Sulaiman, daughter of policeman Kudelat and Aminan Sulaiman, had actually played softball in her elementary school where her running ability was spotted by a school official. Sulaiman, who was described in write ups as “the pride of the fierce Mangulamas tribe of Cotabato”, was hustled off to regional meets in Mindanao and the Visayas, and won those too.

Doubting Thomases were quick to dismiss her wins lightly, but in the national championships of 1960, she was pitted against the renown Inocencia Solis, the reigning 1958 Asian Games gold medalist—and trounced the veteran trackster. Not even Solis’ much ballyhooed, nationally-ranked Cebu Tech team mates, could come close to Sulaiman’s clockings.

Sports critics and observers were silenced, and they soon acknowledged that the sheer  power and brawn of  Sulaiman was superior than the smooth, running style of Solis. Another undeniable edge was Sulaiman’s versatility—she also excels in the throwing events  --shotput (Personal Best 41.2 ft.) , discus ( PB 115 ft. 5 and 5/8 in.), javelin and in the multisport pentathlon.

Sulaiman was soon installed as the new queen of sprints, and her next stop was no less than the 1960 Rome Olympics. That experience was an eye-opener for the 18 year old, and the thought of competing against the world’s best must have unnerved her. Though her performance was reported as “dismal” by the local press, she did fairly well, reaching the 100 meter dash quarterfinals and finishing in 6^th place with a time of 12.4 seconds. Her heat was ruled by the great American Wilma Rudolph, who would go on to win Gold in record time. In the 200 m., Sulaiman timed in at 25.8 secs., 4^th in her heat, won by Poland’s Barbara Janiszewska, who would win Bronze in the 4x100 m. relay.

Returning home, Sulaiman worked on improving her form and technique, and her dedicated efforts rewarded in 1961 when she bannered the Philippine campaign at the Malayan Open in April. She won 4 Gold medals for the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash (a new Malayan record), 4 x 100 m. women’s relay, and the Shotput (another new record), helping propel the Philippines team to 2^nd place overall. That same year, she had also annexed a new Philippine record in Javelin throw.

Coming into the 4th Asian Games in Jakarta in August 1962, Sulaiman looked formidable with her personal best times. She lived up to expectations by ruling the two centerpiece sprint events, registering a new games record of 11.93 secs. for the Gold in the century dash, way ahead of 2 Japanese, Ikuko Yoda (Silver, 12.35 secs.) and  Takuko Inokuchi (Bronze, 12.39 secs.). It was the same story in the 200 meters as Sulaiman prevailed with 24.63 secs. followed by Japan’s Haruko Yamazaki (25.86 secs.) and Ceylon’s Nirmala Dissanayake (secs. 25.92 secs.). 

She grabbed her 3^rd Gold when she teamed up with veteran Inocencia Solis, Francisca Sanopal and Aida Molinos to an upset win over the Japanese team that registered the same games record of 48.67 secs. But Sulaiman was not finish with her medal romp as she had to rush to the field event where she was also entered in the shotput. She won the Bronze with a throw of 11.97 meters.

1962 will be remembered as the peak of Sulaiman’s sporting career. She was the first Filipina to complete a rare golden sprint double at the Asiad. With her spectacular triple victories on the track and a medal at the field events, Mona Sulaiman became the most bemedalled Filipino athlete of the delegation, winning 4 of the total 7 Golds harvested from Jakarta. She was hailed as a local heroine upon her return home and everyone predicted more success in her future.

In April 1964, in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, she was sent to the U.S. to undergo scientific training under coach Bill Bowerman of the University of Oregon. By July,  Sulaiman reported a notable improvement in her athletic prowess, She even managed to shave off .2 secs. from her 11.8 secs. record, lowering it to 11.6 secs., leading local officials to believe that she could be a potential winner of the pentathlon.

This was seconded by 2-time (1948, 1952) Olympic decathlon champion Bob Mathias, who, after sizing her up in Manila, concluded, “She can run, throw weights, and jump too. There is not one girl athlete in the world who could be as good as Mona in all these events.”

But by the time the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo unfolded, Sulaiman stuck to her pet events—100 m., 200 m. sprints, and the 4 x100 m. women’s relay. Her 2^nd Olympic stint was to  be another major disappointment. In her 100m. heat, she placed 7th and last, with a slow time of 12 seconds flat. In the 200 m., she placed 4^th in her heat, at  25.4 seconds. She anchored her team in the 4x 100 m. relay race, and finished second slowest at 48.8 secs. Thus ended Sulaiman’s Olympic campaign in Japan. 

Only 22 years old, Sulaiman continue to train, ready to redeem her poor performance by defending her titles in the 1966 Asian Games, slated in Thailand.  Sulaiman, as expected, was named as a member of the Philippine team. That year though, the organizers introduced the controversial gender testing among athletes. 

Sulaiman rejected the said test, claiming at first it was against her Muslim faith. But for the record, Sulaiman said she was suffering from flu at that time, so she decided to forego with the medical check-up though she was already in Bangkok.

Sulaiman’s refusal spawned many speculations about her real gender, which media played up back in the Philippines. Hurt and humiliated from being barred from the games, she withdrew from the sports and lost interest, thus putting an end to an illustrious athletic career that could have been longer.

MONA AT THE MOVIES, Courtesy of Video 48

She worked in the private sector and even ventured into film as a bit player. She did at least 3 action movies: Santa Fe (1973), Virgina Soliman (1974), and Interpol Malaysia 5 (1975), all with actor Jun Aristorenas. In 1990s, she was given employment by the Philippine Sports Commission as a consultant for the national athletics team. The PSC her inducted into its Hall of Fame in January 2016. Marvelous Mona Sulaiman, Asia’s first lady of speed, passed away on 21 Dec. 2017 at the East Avenue Medical Center after a lingering illness, at age 75.

SOURCES:

“First Lady of Speed”, Sunday Times Magazine, 25 March 1961, pp. 36-37

“Filipino Speedsters in Malaya”, Mirror Magazine, 26 Aug. 1961, p 26

“Asian Games Hopeful”, Sunday Times Magazine, 5 Aug. 1962

1964 Tokyo Olympics supplement, Sunday Times Magazine, p. 15

“Marvelous Mona”, Sunday Times Maazine, 19 Sep. 1964,

Official Report of the 1960 Olympics (Rome) program, LA84 Digital Collection

Official Report of the 1964 Olympics (Tokyo) program, LA84 Digital Collection

Mona Sulaiman, Asia’s fastest woman of early ’60s, dies at 75, Dec 22, 2017 12:13,

https://www.rappler.com/sports/191974-mona-sulaiman-obituary-track/

Philippines at the 1962 Asian Games, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines_at_the_1962_Asian_Games

Athletics at the 1962 Asian Games,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1962_Asian_Games

Mona Sulaiman movies: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4705025/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Movie posters of Santa Fe, Interpol Malyasia 5, courtesy of Video 48

Mona Sulaiman, Wikipedia.com

9. JOHNNY JOSE, World-Class Tennis Prodigy, active 1949-1964

JOHNNY JOSE, Hall of Fame, Philippine Davis Cupper, Asian Games Medalist

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JUAN MARIA  J. JOSE or Johnny Jose (b. 8 Aug. 1938) was the son of Guillermo Jose and Encarnacion Ybañez Johnson, a former Miss Rizal who competed in the Manila Carnival Queen 1927 . Guillermo was named as the consort of the eventual winner, Luisa Marasigan, but it was with Encarnacion that he fell in love, and eventually got married with.

Guillermo was a tennis aficionado  so he encouraged his son Johnny to take up the sports. Jose started his sports career at 7 and won his first tennis title, the National Elementary Singles, at 9. He retained this title until 1951 when he copped the National Secondary titles. In high school at La Salle, Johnny, along with his older brothers, Guillermo and Emilio, were tennis standouts, who made regular winning appearances at the N.C.A.A. tennis tournaments.

In 1952, the 14 year old Jose played in England, Spain and France (under the sponsorship of well-known sportsman, Manolo Elizalde), and came home with the Junior Singles Championship of Kent, England by defeating India’s Ramanathan Krishnan, now rated as one of the top players of the world. The following year, he played in Japan and won both  the All-Japan Singles Title and Junior Doubles Championships.

In 1955, at age 17, Jose was rated as no. 3 man in Philippine tennis. He later made his debut at the Forest Hills, New York in the U.S. Open Championship. In the same year, he was named to the Philippine Davis Cup Team and remained a member of this team for 5 years (1955-1960). Jose was barely 18 when he graduated to the senior ranks, copped several collegiate titles, then went to the US where he and Gregory Grant won the Junior Doubles trophy.

In 1956, Jose teamed up with Ampon to win three major doubles titles: the PTA Open, the Metropolitan, and the National. In the same year, they won the Saigon Doubles title. A year later, Jose was honored as “Athlete of the Year” by De La Salle College, also won the PTA Open Singles title. 1957 became doubly memorable when he scored a major upset in the South Australian Championships by ousting Belgium’s no. 1 Davis cupper, Philippe Washer.

At his debut at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, Johnny Jose bagged his first medal with a Bronze in the men’s singles, completing a 1-2-3 all-Filipino podium finish (Raymundo Deyro and Felicisimo Ampon took Gold and Silver, respectively).

Jose retained his No. 3 position during 1958-1959 and 1959-1960, then jumped to the no. 1 ranking when he won the national singles championship by defeating England’s top ranking player, Mike Sangster. This year (1961), he copped the Malayan Open (singles and doubles), the Malayan Interport Team, and the Singapore Open (doubles).

In 1961, Johny Jose was elected outstanding young man in sports for 1961 not only for the international prestige he has won for the Philippines but also for the fine sportsmanship and gentlemanly deportment off and on the tennis courts.

 Jose made it to his second Asian Games outing held in Jakarta in 1962. Here, he finally secured a Gold medal, trouncing Japan’s Atsushi Miyagi in a hotly-contested final match. This would be the last time that a Filipino would claim a tennis Gold in the Asiad. Jose also won Silver with partner Raymundo Deyro in the doubles, against Japan’s Myagi and M. Fujii,

 At age 26, Jose made a final appearance in the sport at the 1964 Davis Cup Eastern Inter-Zonal Championships and then retired. Johnny, a La Salle chemical engineering graduate, had also worked as head of  the laboratory control department of the Elizalde Iron and Steel Co. He also became a tennis coach, mentoring young tennis stars like the Castillejo sisters, and the women’s tennis national team.

He was inducted into his alma mater’s Lasallian Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and was honored with a Davis Cup Commitment Award Trophy in 2013, for their long years of Philippine representation at the premiere tennis tournament. In 2016, Johnny Jose was inducted into the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame.

He passed away on October 23, 2018 at St. Luke’s Hospital. He is survived by his wife Olivia and 5 children Ina, Juanchit, Annalisa, Fatima, and basketball coach Mon Jose.

SOURCES:

“TOYM”, The Sunday Times Magazine, 26 Aug. 1961, Cover

“Johnny Jose, Malayan Open Singles Champ”. Mirror Magazine, 26 Nov. 1960, p. 30

Screen grab from: Juan "Johnny" Jose BNP Paribes Commitment Award Recipient PHILTA 2013”, uploaded by Davis Cup Philippines, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z9IbuYscEc

Medal Record: wikipedia