From the Guinness Record to a gold medal

I was excited to read about another milestone reached by Cebu City. Thru its active sports commission, the city has set a world record we can be very proud of. This is the “World’s Largest Chess Tournament” in the Guinness Book of World Records, in case you missed the news. Chairman Edward Hayco, deserves our warmest congratulations. This number of 43 thousand plus participants accordingly bested the previous mark held by Russia.

As we savor in this euphoria of being in the Guinness, it is better to look back and realize that we have the necessary ingredients to attain lofty goals. The huge number of Cebuanos who joined the tournament indicates that, in our city, reside thousands upon thousands of sports minded people. Within in our midst are great motivators and leaders. There is the focused leadership of Mr. Hayco, for one. His dedication and hard work pushed him to lead our city to great heights.

The announcement of this great achievement however, came when our country’s best athletes failed to hit their mark in London. The coincidence is too stark, there must be some purpose to this timing. In the Olympic games, we witness some previous records fall and new marks set evidence of man’s continuing search for something faster, something higher, something stronger. But, we are embarrassed by the woeful performance of our delegation.

Putting these two things together, the Guinness record we just registered on one hand, and the dismal failure of our athletes in London, on the other, our sporting leaders can extract a formula of sort to do better in future Olympics. Without any pretense on my part because I have never been a sportsman myself, allow me to point out to two factors.

One. We must accept the fact that most sports disciplines require men of size and strength. This was clear in the 5,000 meter Olympic run. If my eyes did not fail me, I noticed that Filipino runner Herrera placed second to the last of about 24 participants. Believe me, when the race started, I could not see him. He seemed to be simply the unseen pint-sized racer in the company of giants.  

Two. The performance of players worldwide has been tremendously increased with the aid of modern training facilities and equipment. I do not have to mention techniques which are enhanced by advanced scientific studies. A cable television production once showed how the muscles and bones of swimmers are meticulously analyzed in order to boost their coordination. The purpose of the research was to achieve a swimmer’s powerful glide in the water and maximize his speed.

Using those two factors, we can perhaps agree that archery, shooting and diving are events where the Cebuano can compete very well. Of the three, archery is our best field.  A good archer does not need to be a six-footer and arrows do not require an electronic guidance system.   

For a starter, Chairman Hayco, may engage the third and fourth year high school students in the city to take this sport. With the backing of the city government, he may ask the cooperation the whole Region 7, to focus on this Olympic event so that if we mention of mass base, we shall have thousands readily available.

Sporting leaders shall then use education and motivation to create a large pool of potential archers and adopt a continuous training program for them. Of course, they know that a series of competitions can provide a chart of the progress of the athletes and better still identify the really talented ones from the so so.

It is a must for city to acquire the necessary initial archery equipment with international standards. The cost can be expensive but our archers have to know how to handle the real equipment. For use in the day-to-day trainings though, the city can harness our local entrepreneurs and native craftsmen to provide acceptable equipment alternatives. If we just show them what is needed and I believe, they will respond with positive results.

I must profess that I am only imagining the things that Chairman Hayco should know better. I hope he builds on this imagination. Who knows he can translate our Guinness record to an Olympic gold medal.