THE ongoing 18th Asian Games in Palembang and Jakarta, Indonesia will wind up tomorrow, Sunday, and the Philippines is currently at 17th place among 37 participating countries as of Friday, August 31, 2018.
For the best part of the country's Asiad stint, we surpassed the 2014 Incheon medal output of one gold, three silvers and 11 bronzes only good for 22nd place.
Team Philippines, to date, has four gold medals from weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, golfer Yuka Saso, women's golf team of Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan and Lois Kaye Go and skateboarder Margielyn Didal; one silver from Filipino-Japanese Kiyomi Watanabe, who by the way, gave the the country its first Asian Games judo medal since the sport was introduced in 1986; and 13 bronzes from pencak silat (four), taekwondo (three), wushu (two), cycling BMX (one), ju-jitsu (one) and karate (one) and golf (one).
It is interesting to note that the three sports that produced our golds so far were non medal contenders in the Incheon Asian Games. Then lone gold medalist Daniel Caluag failed to double his feat this year having settled for a BMX bronze. Wushu, taekwondo, boxing, archery and karate were also medal contributors in the 17th Asiad.
The country's medal haul in Indonesia, however, could still improve as three Filipino boxers Eumir Felix Marcial, Rogen Ladon and Carlo Paalam, already assured of bronzes, were set to climb the ring for slots in the gold medal round of their respective weight classes.
The highly-fancied Jordan Clarkson-led Gilas Pilipinas also improved its 2014 seventh standing in men's basketball as it was set to play against Syria in the battle for fifth to sixth place set Friday evening. But well, the Yeng Guiao-coached team was not expected to contend with less than a month of preparations and Clarkson only joining the team the very day when the Philippines blasted Kazakhstan, 96-59.
Yes, a 17th overall finish in the quadriennial Games may not be something grand for the competitive side of the Filipinos since our SEA neighbors Indonesia (fourth), Thailand (12th), Malaysia (13th) and Vietnam (15th) are still ahead of us.
But the rigorous journey that Filipino athletes undertake to represent the country is something we all need to thank them for. We can't relate to how they endure the pains of training - depriving themselves of basic food that we enjoy, time supposedly spent with family and loved-are instead spent with the coaches and teammates, shunning themselves from social life as they also have studies and work to attend to.
These are only few of the many sacrifices they make to prepare themselves for international competitions and yet some will only be robbed off hard-earned victories like the case of Davao lady boxer Nesthy Alcayde Petecio.
Our athletes have already endured so much in Indonesia. There is no need for the bashing and shaming. When they return home, whether with medal or empty-handed, let's give them the heroes' welcome they all deserve.
After all, they competed not for themselves. But for our flag and our country.
The Philippine Olympic Committee, the mother umbrella of all national sports associations in the country, could start self-evaluating though while the Philippine Sports Commission could also begin assessing which NSAs deserve to be given financial backing without compromising the athletes' welfare.