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Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Oyson: No stone to be left unturned for Seag gold quest
By Manuel N. Oyson, Jr.
Counter Punch
DESPITEmeager resources, the Philippine Sports Commission is going all-out to prepare the country for the 2005 Southeast Asian Games (Seag) slated late this year. Sports officials have targeted a goal of 120 gold medals to at least assure the host of winning the venereal championship for the first time since the event started as the Pesta Sukan Games in Singapore.
The only problem here is that Thailand has also embarked on an intensive build-up to wrest the crown from defending champion Vietnam.
The Thais may thus pose a problem here. They also have a target of 129 gold medals in order to thwart the bids of others from capturing the overall title. However, only the event will tell in its hour. This will be finally cleared up when the event ends on Dec. 5.
The best-place finish so far for the Filipinos was first runner-up to Indonesia in the 1991 Manila Seag. Only a single gold medal (92-91) made a whale of a difference in the race for the overall crown. To show that the PSC is really serious in preparing its athletes for the biennial games, PSC office-in-charge William “Butch” Ramirez will send 280 national athletes from 15 teams to China, including so-called poor-performing sports.
BILATERAL.An agreement was forged at a recent bilateral meeting between the PSC and the State General Administration of China to assist the Philippines in its preparations for the SEA Games from three to six months under expert Chinese trainers and coaches. The teams include those from athletics, gymnastics, volleyball, weightlifting, rowing, table tennis, badminton, wushu, sepak takraw, football, water polo, canoe/kayak, diving, fencing and swimming.
China will defray their accommodation and training, while the PSC will shoulder the cost of roundtrip airfares. Rowing, diving, water polo and canoe/kayak are considered poor-performing sports.
There is no doubt about China’s dominance in table tennis, gymnastics and volleyball. They have produced Olympic champions in these events.
Philippine athletes can learn a lot from them given the time to prepare. Our training methods have become archaic and outmoded. Even Jurassic. The PROC’s offer to assist us in this matter could not have come at a more opportune time. There is no assurance, however, that making a bid for the 23rd Seag overall championship will be a walk in the park.
ALLOWANCES. Besides Thailand, Vietnam may not easily give up the championship it won two years ago as host. Many-time champion Indonesia ominously looms large. Although it has been said that man does not live by bread alone, an athlete’s regular diet and nutrients also come into play. That’s why Ramirez has also restored the monthly stipend for members of the national pool. Those who are still trying to make it to the national team, are entitled to a monthly stipend of P4,000.
Their daily meal allowances have also been raised from P250 to P350 each.
Previous gold medal winners in the Seag or Asian Games who are classified under class “A” get P8,000 monthly. Holders of silver or bronze medals or those bracketed under class “B” will receive P6,000, in addition to meal allowances. When their meal allowances were cut off during the time of chairman Eric Buhain due to financial constraints, the Alliances of Coaches and Athletes of the Philippines (Ucap) howled and marched to the doorsteps of Malacañang to protest the slash.
NEW QUARTERS.On top of the new improvements introduced by Ramirez, beddings worth P2.5 million have been ordered for the quarters of the athletes at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex. A fresh set of uniforms costing something like P6.5 million has also been ordered. He also directed the swift transfer of 43 athletes in wrestling, table tennis and sepak takraw to new dormitories. He explained that their living quarters at RMSC are no longer fit for athletes, even as he expressed fears that they may get sick.
His aim is to fulfill the wish of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo: The overall crown in the Manila Seag. Ramirez was in Cebu more than three weeks ago to grace the ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the new Cebu Sports Hall of Fame, the first of its kind in the country and which Manila can only envy because it has none. He congratulated the Cebu City Government officials and members of the Sports Hall of Fame executive and screening committees for initiating and propagating such a worthy project, which is now on its 16th year.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The PSC is indeed very transparent in dealing with this issue, especially knowing that the China trip will bring tremendous benefits to Philippine sports.” – PSC acting chair William “Butch” Ramirez, clarifying on the issue that several NSAs (except wushu) were kept in the dark about his recent trip to China with Mike Arroyo
(mno@sunstar.com.ph)
(March 15, 2005 issue)
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