December 18, 2007 | 12:00am
Even before the Philippine contingent left for Nakhom Ratchasima in Thailand for the 24th Southeast Asian Games, we were already sitting ducks. No less than my classmate at La Salle Bacolod Newk Puentebella, who is chief de mission, conceded that we will be aiming for at least third place, Newk said it’s been customary lately that the host country wins as we did two years in Manila. “Sa ato wa pa kasaka sa ring, pilde na”. But as I write this column the Philippines has slipped to sixth place even trailing lowly Singapore a country with only 5 million people. Well I think the constant bickering among the National Sports Agencies (NSAs) is taking its toll. Even before the team’s departure, another close friend and “paisano” PSC Commissioner Richie Garcia had an altercation with the controversial PATAFA head Go Teng Kok. The sports disciplines that we expected to harvest the gold medals failed to deliver. Athletics for instance, only got five gold medals, short of the ten promised by GTK. Our marathon runners were a total bust with pint-sized Vertek Buenavista and Johanne Banayag struggling for the bronze. Baseball, a strong source for a gold medal also turned out to be big disappointment, bowing to the Thais.
Kill em’
While in boxing, the Philippine boxers made a mockery of their bouts after complaining of biased officiating. The move however drew the ire of PSC chair Butch Ramirez who said “we should’ve fought”. Of course its common knowledge that Thailand is famous for hometown decisions in the first degree. The only way to be beat a Thai is to send him to Dreamland or clobber him with a boxer’s stool. Better still throw a kitchen sink on him.
Sob Story
In my over 30 years in the running scene, I’ve encountered so many sad stories of runners’ adventures in alien place. In one occasion, an out-of-town runner who was stranded in Cebu after a race slept in a funeral parlor. The runner pretended to be a friend of the deceased and fed on biscuits, coffee and juice which were served to people coming to the wake. In the recent Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, Cebu’s former marathon queen Merlita Arias had a similar sob story. After being abandoned by her coordinator, Merlita had to sleep on the sidewalk with an empty stomach. Of course the result was disastrous. Merlita almost didn’t finish the race. So the lesson learned here is, if you don’t have enough logistics never venture in unfamiliar territory. On the other hand, when one-legged triathlete Rudy Fernandez and I ran in the same marathon in 2004, we had an array of sponsors including the Singapore Tourism Board. The sponsor gave our Singapore Airlines tickets and booked us on the five-star hotel Conrad Centennial (a Hilton International chain). Our meals were all buffet so that when race day came, we could hardly run. Our other sponsor, Standard Chartered Bank Philippines also paid for our entry fees and gave us $150 for pocket money. So again if you are promised by someone “kita lang ta didto”, never take the risk. Ask for the bullet first for how could you shoot with an empty chamber.
