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Athletics: From barefoot runner to Asian champ, Rogelio Onofre relishes PH hall of fame nod

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Manolo Pedralvez

<div class="media-content"><div class="slider-for"><div><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/sports/04/02/20150624-rizal-sports-complex-track-oval.jpg"/></div><div><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/sports/04/02/20130720-rizal-sports-complex-track-oval-04.jpg"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/sports/04/02/20130720-rizal-sports-complex-track-oval-11.jpg"/></div></div><div class="slider-desc"><div class="item-desc"><p>Rizal Sports Complex track oval. <cite>Ramon F Velasquez, Wikimedia Commons</cite></p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Rizal Sports Complex track oval. <cite>Ramon F Velasquez, Wikimedia Commons</cite></p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Rizal Sports Complex track oval. <cite>Ramon F Velasquez, Wikimedia Commons</cite></p></div></div></div><p>Former national track and field champion Rogelio Onofre had a quaint introduction to the world of running, recalling winning all of his races during barrio fiestas as a barefoot teen wonder in his childhood neighborhood in Dagupan city, Pangasinan.</p><p>“I think I was about 15 or 16 then and this was before I entered high school. Lahat ng takbo ko panalo, at nakapaa lang (I won all of my races running barefoot),” said the California-based Onofre, who was named last month in the latest batch of athletes to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame.</p><p>“We won all of those, if I recall. May pusta yan (There were bets placed). I got P3 as a reward and Coca-Cola,” added the former athlete, who was born on December 12, 1939 in Tarlac city, Tarlac before his father transferred his family to the nearby province.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/03/12/21/jaworski-barca-legend-paulino-alcantara-headline-ph-sports-hall-of-fame-inductees">Jaworski, Barca legend Paulino Alcantara headline PH sports hall of fame inductees</a></li></ul><p>When he ran out of opposition in Dagupan, Onofre, 82, said that his manager, a former gasoline station owner whose name he no longer remembers, took him to the adjacent town of Binmaley, continuing to leave his rivals in the dust. </p><p>A 3-time Asian Games and Olympic Games veteran, he relished the gold medal he won as a member of the 4x100 men’s relay team at the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games, considering the triumph as his most outstanding athletic accomplishment.</p><p>The men’s 4x100-meter relay in the 1962 Jakarta Asiad was a thrilling 3-way, down-to-the-wire battle among defending champion the Philippines, Japan and Malaysia, which was then known as the Republic of Malaya.</p><p>Lean and lanky at 5-foot-9, the sprinter ran the anchor leg, scrambling to win the relay title in 41.3 seconds, ahead of the Japanese quartet, who took the silver, while relegating the Malaysians to the bronze after both squads ended in a dead heat of 41.5 seconds.</p><p>“The relay gold is the most important win of my sports career,” noted Onofre, who had a fruitful campaign in the Indonesian capital after securing a bronze medal in the men’s century dash with a time of 10.7 seconds.</p><p>To think, he said, that his entry into the local athletic scene began in the men’s high jump, getting noticed by national coaches when he figured prominently in the event during the regional private schools athletics.</p><p>“I think I finished second or third in that meet and became a candidate for the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo. I did not do too (well) there, however,” he said, “which is why I shifted to the 100 and 200-meter runs the following year.”</p><p>This proved to be beneficial for the probinsiyano runner, as he earned his slot on the men’s 4x100-meter relay squad, joining mainstays Remigio Vista, Isaac Gomez and Claro Pellosis, all members of the national team that bagged the gold at the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games.</p><p>At the same Tokyo National Stadium two years later, the Philippine men’s relay squad relay squad failed to hurdle the preliminaries, finishing seventh in the second heat in a time of 41.7 seconds.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/03/14/21/bowling-olympic-champ-arianne-cerdea-recalls-journey-to-ph-sports-hall-of-fame">Bowling: Olympic champ Arianne Cerdeña recalls journey to PH Sports Hall of Fame</a></li></ul><p>Ordeal of ex-national athletes recalled </p><p>“Athletes got $2 each when we went to the Asian Games and the Olympics,” Onofre recounted of the meager allowances they got as country’s standard-bearers, a far cry from amounts received by current national athletes.</p><p>He remembered his own ordeal as a member of the national team, including sleeping on the concrete floor of the Rizal Memorial Track and Field Stadium with nothing more than a mosquito net for protection.</p><p>“One time noong nagpunta ako sa Rizal Memorial, gaiing ako sa probinsiya at walang sumalubong sa aking. Nakita ako (ng isang coach) at binigyan akong kulambo. Sumadsad na ako sa semento. (There was one time I went to the Rizal Memorial from the province. No one met me then but one coach saw me and gave me a mosquito net. I just laid on the floor to sleep),” Onofre reminisced.</p><p>It was not all hardship, however, the former national team standout said, baring that he was awarded a Fullbright scholarship to the US a year after the national relay squad’s golden show in Jakarta.</p><p>“In 1963, I was sent to America to train as a Fullbright scholar. I trained and had schooling in America. We started at Colorado State and then I was stationed in Los Angeles for additional schooling and training,” he said.</p><p>Together with Vista, William Moderno, Arnulfo Valles, Onofre bowed out of the Asian Games in the 1966 edition in Bangkok, with a bronze medal in men’s 4x100-meter relay, clocking 41.3 seconds.</p><p>No longer a spring chicken at 29 and nursing a heel injury, he wound up his athletic career two years later at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, exiting in the heats of the men’s 100-meter and 110-meter hurdles with times of 10.5 seconds and 15.0 seconds, respectively.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/03/24/21/football-fc-barcelona-hails-paulino-alcantaras-induction-in-ph-sports-hall-of-fame">Football: FC Barcelona hails Paulino Alcantara&#x27;s induction in PH Sports Hall of Fame</a></li></ul><p>Granddaughter aims to follow in Olympic footsteps</p><p>More than a half-century after his track and field exploits, Onofre, who now enjoys his retirement in San Francisco, said he was in disbelief when he learned that he was among the fourth batch of honorees to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame.</p><p>“‘Is this true?’ I asked my children and friends when I learned of the announcement. I was getting a call from my kanunu-nunuan (distant relatives) that I received. An old sportswriter friend, Ignacio Dee, also informed me that I have gotten the award,” he said. “My daughter in Kuwait sent me a link to the news article about the announcement.”</p><p>“This award is very important and makes me really very proud after all these years because all our loved ones and friends are very proud of me, too,” Onofre stressed.</p><p>He is doubly proud that granddaughter Zion Corales Nelson hopes to follow in his Olympic footsteps, offering her encouragement in her effort to qualify for the world’s biggest sports spectacle.</p><p>A silver medalist in the women’s 4x100-meter relay in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, Nelson is gunning to qualify for the women’s 200-meter sprint.</p><p>“To Zion, the Olympic Games is where the most outstanding athletes in world (take part). Consider yourself one of them,” Onofre said. </p><div><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1385261" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>The Tarlac-born, Pangasinan-raised Onofre remembers the triumphs and the struggles that went with his success on the track in the 1950s to the 1960s.</p>

The Tarlac-born, Pangasinan-raised Onofre remembers the triumphs and the struggles that went with his success on the track in the 1950s to the 1960s.