Kick-ass time, Mr. Vargas

NOTHING at all in athletics. Our 13 athletes all got blanked. Not even a single bronze to show. And there were 142 medals staked—the most from just one sport. Forty-seven were golds.

Why the continuous drought in athletic talents?

After Lydia de Vega’s sprints sweep in the 1982 New Delhi, not even a shadow of her heir apparent has appeared in the last nine Asian Games.

What’s going on, wrote 4 Non Blondes.

Even Ricky Vargas, the president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), had taken notice of it. Vargas said that in a medal-rich discipline like athletics, “we shouldn’t be shut out.”

If you can agree, you can also agree not to ban the Filipino public from watching the Philippines-Qatar game live in Manila on Sept. 16?

There ought to be a move to appeal the Fiba decision declaring that game to be played behind closed doors.

Why punish the Filipino fans for a crime they didn’t commit?

It was the Gilas players who brawled with the Australians. Not us.

But well, let’s deal with this later.

Back to our Asiad performance.

It is not only in athletics that we got blanked. In swimming, too, where 123 medals were up for grabs—the Games’ second highest—with 41 golds staked.

Like Lydia de Vega, the likes of Eric Buhain is also being missed that much. Eric it was who also gave us precious golden moments in several Asiads past.

Like athletics, swimming has also been buffeted, consistently, by storms centering mostly on politicking.

After Go Teng Kok’s sterling shepherding of athletics—did not GTK’s Army once amass seven medals in one overseas battle?—the sport somewhat suffered a nosedive.

What we virtually see in that sport now are athletes with American-sounding names. Whatever happened to our homegrown breed?

And in swimming, when will our warring officials ever reconcile to form a united association?

Athletics and swimming had a combined 17 athletes dispatched to the Jakarta Asiad. Zero.

Skateboarding sent the least number of athletes with only three. It came home with one gold.

If that’s not a class act, what is?

Paging Mr. Vargas. It’s kick-ass time.