Engelberto “Biboy” Rivera erased the stigma of the one that got away in Busan 2002 by playing skillful and calculated bowling to snatch his first—and more importantly also the Philippines’—gold medal three days into the Guangzhou 16th Asian Games on Monday night.

This time, Rivera did not let that fateful right thigh come in the way and went on to give the country a reason to rejoice in Guangzhou where the hosts are pretty well on their way to emerging as runaway champions in all fronts.

“It was a long wait, eight years!” said Rivera, 36, after coming out of the doping room on Monday night. He overstayed at the doping room after officials asked him for a second set of urine samples.

Rivera had the gold virtually in the bag in Busan but in the last frame of the same men’s singles event, when the thrill of winning destroyed his concentration, his ball hit his thigh before release. The ball found the gutter and with it went his dreams. He wound up a sore fourth.

In Guangzhou where the lanes were long-oiled to his convenience, Rivera had everything going for him. He led after the first block and played further on without the bitter 2002 experience hounding him. His teammate, Frederick Ong, was in the running in the last three frames of the second block but eventually settled for the bronze behind Kuwaiti Muhammed A.M.A.

The final result: Rivera 1,414 pin falls, Muhammed 1,404 and Ong 1,390.

Rivera admitted it took a while for the victory to sink in. “My coaches had to make me realize I really won gold,” he said, referring to among them Jojo Canare and Lydio Transporto.

His 1,414 also was much better than the 1,345—good for ninth place—he did in Doha four years ago.

While on the team car on the way back to the sprawling Athletes’ Village, Rivera was teased endlessly by his teammates, especially his close friend Chester King.

“Now I will get my reward!” King told Rivera.

King tried to keep Rivera at ease after leading the first block by forcing him to a bet. “If you win the gold medal, you will have to give me your iPad,” he told Rivera. Both bowlers are long-time buddies. In fact, they coown a Mang Inasal branch in Cubao.

In the last three frames of the second block, King even amusingly egged Ong not to roll any better.

“No! Don’t win the gold, or I don’t get my iPad!” King narrated.

That P35,000 iPad has been transformed into a P500,000 bonus for Rivera. The bonus is mandated by law via the Athletes’ Incentive Act. For the bronze medal, Ong will receive P100,000 from the Philippine Sports Commission.

Rivera’s victory shoved him in the company of Filipino bowling greats, including four-time World Cup winner Paeng Nepomuceno and Bong Coo. His gold medal was the sixth for the country in the Asian Games after Coo’s singles and Women’s Team of Five in 1978 in Bangkok, again Coo’s All Events and Women’s Team of Five in Seoul in 1986 and Nepomuceno and RJ Bautista’s men’s doubles in 2002 in Busan.

“I remember once when Ms. Bong [Coo] told me that for me to be included on the list of greats, I must have an Asian Games gold medal. Now I did,” said Rivera, who owns a World Masters trophy (2007) and a third-place finish in the World Cup early this year.

But Rivera had to break the inevitable.

Hobbled on several occasions by a hurting right knee—he had to take painkillers to ease the pain—the gold medalist said he is calling it quits.

“The pain [knee] just keeps coming back. Now I have the gold, I have decided and I believe I have go into a sabbatical,” he said.

Jun Lomibao, Business Mirror