Wanting
The 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand are on its final days and unless we overtake Malaysia with gold hauls, it looks like we’re stuck at sixth place. There were reports of rules manipulation by the host country, but this thing had been done ever since whoever or whichever country hosted the games. Let’s cut the whining and just deal with it when it will be Malaysia’s turn to host the event in 2027.
With some edge-of-your-seat games, the women’s national football team didn’t disappoint. They lived up to the hype of their FIFA Women’s World Cup entry and bagged the country’s first-ever SEAG women’s football gold, outscoring regional football powerhouses Thailand and Vietnam thru penalty shoot-outs.
PH defended its SEAG men’s baseball title by defeating host Thailand. It is the fourth baseball title by the men’s national baseball team. We had been doing well in international baseball competitions but their popularity and support pales in comparison to glamor sports like basketball, football and volleyball.
Swimming did well, bannered by the bemedalled Kayla Sanchez, as well as watersports like wakeboarding and windsurfing. Athletics is where the bulk of our medal haul is. With 7,600+ islands, I’m sure we have hidden gems, some diamonds in the rough waiting to be polished. NSAs should focus more on the provinces to look for talents rather than search overseas for Fil-foreigners and paying them in dollars plus perks.
Endurance sports like road and mountain biking, bmx, triathlon and marathon gave us medals, as well as rowing. There’s no reason we can’t medal in a sport using some kind of a watercraft and paddles considering our proximity to open water.
There is a need, if not done yet, for our sports officials to give more attention to other combat sports aside from boxing. It’s a given that we had always been successful in boxing in the region, but more love should be given to martial arts. The Thais and Vietnamese dominated jiu jit su, but we managed to win 2 golds, a silver and several bronze medals. These are sports we can very well excel, where height is not necessarily might.
It was a satisfactory campaign for our athletes with a few more medals still to be contested. The support from the government is there but it’s still wanting.
If only our legislators care about our country’s sport development and allocate some billions of pesos, instead of creating those numerous acronyms thru the Department of Social Welfare meant to empathize the marginalized, but intended funds makes a side trip to congress so that their smiling faces on huge tarps and their person can be on hand when the agency distributes the assistance.
With what’s happening in the country’s repository, KKK should be an apt acronym – Kwarta’s Kaban Kawaton.
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