By Rey Danseco

Ricardo Adolfo, one of five Filipino boxers in the 14th Summer Olympics in London, England, will be buried around 3 p.m on Wednesday at the La Loma Cemetery in Manila, Philippines.

Adolfo, a punching machine during his prime and a cop in Manila, died at the age 88 last May 25 at his home in Blumentritt, Manila.

He left behind his three siblings: Rene, Alice Adolfo-Lumanog, a Vice President of the Mercury Drug chain, and Ella, who is a United States immigrant.

Adolfo, who is widely known simply as Carding by his friends and kin, was the third flyweight representative of the Philippines in Olympic history after John Gray participated in the 10th annual Olympics in Los Angeles (USA) in 1932, and Felipe Nunag appeared in the next edition of the quadrennial event in 1936 in Berlin, Germany.

Along with fellow national champions, lightweight Ernesto Porto, feather Leon Trani, welter Mariano Velez Jr. and bantam Bonifacio Zarcal, Adolfo fought with pride in his quest for the elusive gold medal, but lost in the preliminary rounds.

Argentinean Pascual Perez ruled the 112-lb division, which was the 2nd gold for Argentina in the London Games after heavyweight Rafael Iglesias. And it was the 7th and last boxing gold medal for Argentina.

After he retired from boxing, Adolfo took the job as head coach of Adamson amateur boxing team that gave some tough times for the archrival Far Eastern University in various competitions from 1969 to 1974.

In that historic London Olympics, the Philippines also sent athletes to compete in the century dash, shooting, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling and men’s basketball that placed the Philippines 12th among 23 competing participating nations.

The trio of Lauro Mumar, Ramon Campos Jr. and Manuel Araneta led the RP quintet which was placed 7th at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and 11th at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

NOTE : The veteran writer REY DANSECO is based in Manila and the Sports Editor of Bagong Tiktik (Spy), one of the leading daily in the Philippines. He is also a pro-boxing judge and television commentator of weekly program Ringside@Elorde that airs from 11 p.m to 12 midnight every Saturday over NBN Channel 4 in the whole country. He also writes for Manila Times ( www.manilatimes.net ), which was established in 1898.