Throwing
events in athletics—like discus, shot put, javelin and hammer throws—do not
exactly command attention the way that the more popular foot races, relays and
sprints do. But in the 1930s, whenever Bicolano AURELIO AMANTE steps on
the field to throw the discus or put the shot, the bleacher crowd is hushed
into silence, their attention riveted on the field as this hulk of man prepares
to unleash his renown power in the discus throw.
Indeed, Aurelio
“Liling” Amante, in his prime, was not only the top discus thrower of the
country, but also of the Asian region, breaking records at these field events
in both local and international meets. His formidable hurling strength led to
sportswriters to give him the sobriquets,
“Strongman” , “Hercules” or “Big Boy” of Philippine
sports.
A Star Disc-overy in Field Athletics
Born in
1912, Amante was exposed to sports early—not as an athlete, but as a
member of a crew that organized inter-school and inter-provincial track and
field tournaments. His assigned tasks included retrieving discus plates, shot
put balls and javelins after every athlete’s throw. During the breaks or after
the conclusion of the meets, Amante would often tinker with the discus,
practicing how to hurl them. He was surprised to find he could throw them at
great distances, and the teen soon developed a keen interest in the sport. He
was largely self-taught, learning from books and sports manuals to improve his
skills.
It was
in one such meet in Masbate that Amante caught the attention of national discus
champion Fidel Mendoza while he was practicing his throws. He mentored
him about the finer points of discus throwing, sharing the technical aspects of
the throw, from his grip, to his turns, and timing of the release.
Amante would meet Mendoza
again—this time as fellow competitors at the 1930 National Track and Field
Meet in Manila. The seasoned veteran Mendoza, as expected, bagged
the Gold—but trailing not too far behind was his 18 year old protégé, Aurelio
Amante, who earned a Bronze medal finish.
Throwing His Weight Around at the Try-Outs
Amante
continued to
improve in the next few years and 1934 proved to be his busiest season yet—and
also the most productive. At age 22, now in the collegiate ranks, he competed
at the 1934 Interscholastic Meet in Bacolod, Negros Occidental—and
reigned supreme in the Discus Throw by winning the Gold.
This
instantly qualified him to join the Track and Field Preliminary Qualifying Meet
held at the newly-built Rizal Memorial Stadium on 31 March 1934—which
was the first level elimination round to determine the Philippine team
to the 1934 Far Eastern Championship Games slated in May.
By this
time, there were emerging strong student athletes like William “Bill” Ray, Mario
Branzuela (both from U.P.) and Delfin
Danguilan (Army) who were to be Amante’s biggest rivals. In the Discus
Throw where Amante was the defending champion, he suffered a
surprise loss when Ray, who heaved the discus to 129 ft. 3 inches,
beat him to second place, with Branzuela in 3rd.
Not one
to ponder at his defeat in his pet event, Amante returned to the field
in the afternoon for the Shot Put event. In one mighty throw, Amante
put the shot at an incredible 43 feet 1 5/8 inches, breaking by 3 feet
the national record of Toribio Bucoy which stood at 40 ft. 1 in. Branzuela
also surpassed Bucoy’s record, with a distance of 40 ft. 11
inches for Silver, Bucoy got the Bronze, while Bill Ray—who
also entered this event—was a distant 4th.
News of Amante’s
sensational record-breaking feat in the shot put made headlines as he
considered himself more as a discus specialist. Amante proved this,
without a doubt, at the final try-outs for the remaining athletes held in the
afternoon of 28 April 1934. At the discus event, he threw the disc at an
astounding distance of 138 ft 1 7/8 inches, breaking the current Asian
record of 132 ft. 11 ¾ , established by Japan’s Masae Saito at the 1930
Tokyo Far East Games. This time, Bill Ray came in 2nd and
Branzuela 3rd.
The Farthest of the Far, 1934
With his
victory, Amante became part of the 197-strong Philippine national
team to lead the country’s golden quest at the 1934 Far East Games
slated for 16-20 May, in Manila. Amante was chosen to
carry the country’s colors during the opening of the Games at the Rizal
Memorial Stadium.
Brimming
with renewed energy and confidence, Amante came to the Rizal Memorial
Stadium just a day after the Games opening as a hometown favorite for
the discus crown title. The Japanese though, led by Kosaku Kikutoto
and Kiyoharu Fujita, were
determined to keep their title. Throw after throw, their distances were
measured and registered, and when their attempts had all been used up, it was Amante
of the Philippines who was at the top of winners’ list.
He had
reset his month-old record to a new distance of 139 feet and 7 ¼ inches
(42.54 m.), an unbelievable improvement of about a foot and a half—and a
new Far East Games record! The Japanese were left fighting for
next two places, with Kikutoto claiming Silver (42. 21 m)
and Fujita, the Bronze (40.35 m.). The hometown crowd went
wild with Amante’s triumph, and for days, his win was the buzz of local
newspapers long after the closing of the Manila Far East Games.
Having a Field Day Putting and Throwing, 1934-1938
With the
major competitions done, Amante began focusing on the future. As a
scholar at Jose Rizal College, he was able to pursue both his sports and
schooling. One of the more memorable events he was invited to join was the
two-day dual track and field meet between visiting American stars led by
the world’s fastest human, Ralph Metcalfe, and the cream of Filipino
athletes.
Held in
the last week of October, 1934, Amante was pitted against the 22 year
old “Stanford Giant” Gordon Dunn in the Shot Put. He was no match
for the American who smashed the Philippine record of 12.65 meters
thrice, with a heave of 15. 27 meters. Though Amante was good
only for a 3rd place with 12.36 meters to show, he had
a good time thrilling the packed audience of 6,000 at the Rizal Stadium.
Now a
national sports figure, Amante was honored to appear as a guest of the 1935
National Interscholastic Championships where
he led 400 young crack athletes in declaring the Amateur Oath at the Rizal
Track and Football Stadium.
The next
year, Amante saw action at the Shot Put event of the annual NCAA
Track and Field Meet where he claimed the Gold, enabling Jose
Rizal College to capture the overall
championship title against perennial rivals La Salle and Mapua.
He continued this winning streak in the Discus when he represented the NCAA
in the 1937 National Track and Field Meet held on February 13.
Two
important events awaited the much heralded athlete in 1938: the Intercollegiate
Track and Field Meet (Feb. 26-27), and the National Open Track and Field
Meet where NCAA dominated the field events with his Gold medal
finish in the Discus, and Bronze in the Shot Put.
Discus Star Dismissed by U.P., 1940-1948
As the
1940s decade began, the now 28 year old athlete found gainful employment at the
University of the Philippines, and secured a state scholarship to further
his Education studies. In May 1940 however, Amante tried out and
qualified to join the East Asia Athletic Meet in Japan in July along
with sprinter Nemesio de Guzman and hurdler Jose Ravelo. They
were lucky enough to earn winners’ points from the Tokyo tournament.
Upon
their return however, Amante and the 2 alums were barred from admission
due to their excessive absences, a violation of the scholarship rules. Disappointed due to the university’s lack of consideration, De Guzman
transferred to Ateneo, a private school, while Ravelo accepted a
high school teaching job in Iloilo. Amante stuck it out in his UP
job despite being denied enrollment. He was conspicuously absent from the 1941
UAAP Track and Field Meet held at the end of January.
Amante, however, was allowed to compete by U.P.
a month later at the 1941 National Open Track & Field Championships
that took place end of February. Amante
proved his worth by winning the Gold in his favorite Discus Throw,
hurling it a distance of 40.93 meters, or some 135.30 feet. It
would seem that Amante’s golden win
settled the scholastic issue once and for all, but a scant 10 months
later, the war would defer his academic and sporting ambitions for a good
number of years.
When the war ended in 1945, the much-damaged University
of the Philippines relocated its buildings to Diliman beginning in
1948. Amante resumed his academic and athletic pursuits here at age
36. After all, he was still the
undisputed holder of the Philippine and UAAP (University Athletic Association
of the Philippines) records in the Discus Throw and Shot Put.
And, in the 1948 National Field Meet, he still managed to win Silver
Medals in the Discus and Shot Put (16 lbs.) events. He was
entered in the same events at the 1948 UAAP Track and Field Meet where
he beat out his younger rivals for the Gold in both the Discus
and 16 lbs. Shot Put.
The Dean of the Discus:
Asian Games and Beyond, 1951-1954
Three
years later, now 39 years old, Amante was named to the Philippine
national team that was sent to compete at the seminal Asian Games in
New Delhi, India in 1951, from Mar. 8 to 11. He lost his title bid and
settled for third place (38.14 m.) after India’s Makhan Singh (1st,
39. 92 m. ) and Japan’s Norimi Sato (2nd, 39.29 m.). Still,
he was named by the Philippine Sportswriter’s Association as one of the Athletes
of the Year in Field Events, for 1951-1952.
The second
Asian Games in Manila staged in 1954 was to be Aurelio
Amante’s last major international outing. In the finals, the 42 year old
senior athlete finished a dismal 7th in the Discus Throw, won
by another Indian, Parduman Singh Brar, who likewise pocketed the Shot
Put Gold. Thus ended his domination as the region’s best discus thrower.
Retiring
from Athletics, he became an instructor of Physical Education at
the Araneta Institute of Agriculture (now known as De La Salle
Araneta University) until the 60s and while staying connected with the University
of the Philippines, Press section. “Big Boy” Aurelio Amante, the Filipino
titan of throws, the Hercules strongman, remained a lifelong
bachelor, opting to devote most of his young, productive years to the sport
that he loved best.
SOURCES:
“El
record nacional de ‘shot put’ batido por Aurelio Amante”, Deportes, La Vanguardia, p. 7, 2
Apr. 1934
“Amante
mejora el registro Oeriental en disco”, Deportes, La Vanguardia, p. 9, 30 Apr. 1934
“197
Atletas representaran a Filipinas en la olimpiada”, Deportes, La Vanguardia, p. 9, 4 May 1934
“Amante
Takes Amateur Oath”,
The Tribune, 15 Feb 1935, p. 11.
Photo: “Amante,
Ray, Branzuela”, Presentando a nuestros atletas.
Photo:
“Aurelio Amante”. La Vanguardia, p. 7, 17 May 1934
Photo:
Aurelio Amante,“Record Breaker”, The Tribune, 28 Sep. 1934, p. 11
Photo:
Aurelio Amante shot put”, Saturday Mirror Magazine, 2 Nov. 1957
Philippine
Yearbook, 1951-1952, “Sports”
Graphic
Magazine, 1934 Far East Games coverage
