Limpag: Arnis in the Seag

THE 2019 Seag is about to wrap up with the Philippines expected to bag just its second overall title in 14 years. We got the lead in the medal thanks to arnis and dancesports, which started right after the opening ceremony.

In arnis, the Philippines won 14 of the 20 medals at stake with Vietnam, the host of the next meet, earning four golds. In dancesport, the Philippines won 10 of the 13 gold medals with Vietnam earning two.

Why am I highlighting this? The two events are usually the first to be dropped when it’s another country hosting the meet since the two are all recognized as the country’s ATM for medals in the meet.

I attended a couple of pre-Seag meet of the Philippine Eskrima Arnis Federation (Pekaf) and the group was assured that Vietnam would include the event in 2021. There’s no assurance in dancesport for 2021 and for 2023, there’s none for both.

But I think the Philippines can help address that. When taekwondo became a regular Olympic sport in Sydney 2000, the then World Taekwondo Federation--the world governing body for the sport which was forced to change its name since it’s acronym WTF is synonymous to a notorious online expression--limited the number of entries a country can send to two men and two women.

That was to offset the advantage of the South Koreans, who many would fear would dominate the medals. I remember an official of the Philippine Taekwondo Association telling me that that rule meant an Olympic medal was a real possibility.

After four Olympiads, the limit has been lifted. But the rule has played its part, for 12 years at least, the rest of the world got to catch up with the perceived advantage the Koreans had in the sport.

So what if Pekaf can lead the Seag Federation to adopt such rule for arnis to ensure that the sport will always be included in the meet and of course, to address the neighbor’s concern regarding our advantage.

With 20 gold medals at stake, they can limit the number of entries a country can send to five men and five women? That way, that will encourage the other nations to participate, not just Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and the host this year.

Of course, since the host has to have an advantages per the peculiar Seag tradition, then perhaps we can lift that limit for the host. We want arnis to be present at every Seag, not just in the editions the country host. The sport was included only in the meet in 1991, 2005 and 2019—the last three times we hosted it.

If we have to give away some of our advantage, I think that would be better. I’d prefer winning five of the 20 gold medals at stake every edition than wait to win most of the medals at stake every 14 years or so.

Keeping it in the Seag will at least allow our neighbors to catch up with us in terms in of skills and perhaps, just like taekwondo, there won’t be a need to have such limitations.

What? Allow the rest of Southeast Asia to be as good as us? Of course, that’s good for the sport and eventually, good for our country.

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