THE 13th Milo Little Olympics had gone through a smooth-sailing staging until it caught a 16-year-old competing in the elementary division that completely tainted the sporting meet.
“It was a lesson learned. It tells us to be more cautious next time,” said organizer Ricky Ballesteros, who has been at the forefront of the 13-year-old meet.
A track athlete, who was up for a Most Outstanding Athlete diadem in the elementary division, the most sought-after honors in the Milo meet, was disqualified the other day, for being ineligible.
The Sacred School Hijas de Jesus, whose athlete is in the running for the same award, contested this and found enough proof—a verified birth certificate from the National Statistics Office.
“There had been allegations during the games that he was overaged and only until we received a proper complaint did we look into the matter,” he said.
Because of this, the athlete was stripped of his five gold medals, the MOA award and together with his coach, will be banned from the sporting meet next year.
The coach was also made to submit a written apology, which he submitted yesterday.
The protest actually came a lot later than the time allotted for protests to be filed, but Ballesteros took it in consideration since a MOA is involved.
“We are dealing with kids and MOAs are supposed to be role models to other athletes. As organizers, we used the authority to accept the protest for the sake of fairness and truth,” said Ballesteros.
“What was disappointing is the coach blamed the athlete, saying ‘nalutsan siya sa bata.’ They can’t wash their hands on this because it is his athlete. The coaches and principals should take responsibility,” said Ballesteros.
Investigation
After inquiring with the San Nicola Elementary School principal, Ballesteros said the principal will be conducting her own investigation on the matter.
Ballesteros said that since they wanted to spare the athletes and schools to spend extra for NSO-certified birth certificate, they relied mainly on the trust factor and hoped for principals and coaches to be honest enough when sending their representatives.
Milo Little Olympics asks for birth certificates, but athletes have the option to submit their report cards, which are certified by the principals and coaches. (MCB)
