Saturday, August 23, 2008 POC officials ask : Blame us, spare the athletes By Frank C. Calapre Sun.Star Staff Reporter
MANILA - Chief of Mission Monico Puentevella yesterday asked sports buffs to spare the athletes from any criticisms regarding the debacle suffered by Team Philippines in the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
Puentevella, who is also the president of the Philippine Weighlifting Association, said the 15-man RP team did their best during the Games and deserved even praises despite their failure to win a medal.
“If anyone wants to criticize they should do it to the officials but please do not blame the athletes because they really fought hard against the best in the world,” said Puentevella in a tele-conference at the PSC Olympic Games secretariat.
He cited the 10 new national records that have been set by the athletes in swimming, weightlifting and other sports, which is proof of their heroic exploits in the Olympiad.
The sad performance by the country’s top athletes was further aggravated by the first bout setback by Antoinette Rivero to Croatian Sandra Saric, 1-4, in the middleweight class of the taekwondo competition.
“I’m willing to take the blame. It may be that our program is wrong or our program needs to be reviewed, then I’ll accept responsibilities but please do not blame the athletes,” stressed Puentevella.
Puentevella said that they are going to have a Sports Summit in Subic on Sept. 5, to make the final review and assessment over the sad state of Philippine Sports.
“Among the things that I would like to suggest in the sports summit is the revival of our grassroot development program like the Batang Pinoy and to strengthen the Palarong Pambansa so that we can have a wider base for the selection of the members of the national training pool,” he said.
Misfortune
For his part, Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco refused to give his comment about the misfortune of the Filipino athletes that no one among them was able to make past the first round of competition.
“I don’t want to give my comments at this point in time that we are sad. We have to avoid mistake by saying so many things that we might change or deny later on. It’s not good to speak when we are in the state of sadness,” said Cojuangco, who earlier signified his intention to seek re-election in October.
Setback
Cojuangco said the setback of Rivero is very shocking that no one among the sports officials attending the Games can even utter words.
“We can not even speak among each other here. Tinginan lang kami. It’s very sad and it would be better that no one among us will talk about our campaign here now that we are grieving over it,” added Cojuangco.
With all 15 already out of contention, the remaining hope for medal is in the demonstration sports of wushu, which was still in the final round of competition at press time.
Former world champion Willy Wang is currently leading the first round of the two-round nanquan or forms event. But any medal by Wang will not be counted in the official medal standings since its is just a an exhibition sports.
“What shall we do?. Are we going to find some faults upon anybody and put the blame upon each other? So, I guess it’s just better that no one speaks now that we are still grieving,” he said.
