Elma not going to Sydney

Philippine sports may have seen the last of Elma Muros Posadas since she may not be considered for the Sydney Games in favor of promising Filipino athletes.

Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (PATAFA) president Go Teng Kok said yesterday that he is fielding in younger and promising athletes instead of old reliables like Muros.

"We have to give the younger ones a chance. We may have a very slim chance or maybe none at all in the Olympics but sending them there is already a step in preparing them for other future competitions," said Patafa head Go Teng Kok.

Go, also the Philippine Olympic Committee's chair of its membership and accreditation committees, admitted that Muros, who also represented the country in the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Games, should give way to aspiring national athletes to firm them up for future international competitions.

But Go clarified that he is not totally easing out Muros' chances of making it to Sydney because the 32-year-old long jumper can still clinch a slot if she breaks the 6.5-meter mark she herself recorded a couple of years back in the National Open. But Muros has increasingly shown a dip in form as could be gleaned from her 6.2-meter performance in the Brunei SEAG in 1999.

The country can send a male and a female athlete in the Olympics because of an International Olympic Committee ruling giving participating nations outright berths in athletics.

Go explained that should none meet the standard required in the coming National Open, Patafa may send either promising sprinters Maristella Torres or Christabelle Martinez. Disputing the men's slot are 19-year-old Joebert Delicano (long jump), Edward Buenavista (3,000-m steeplechase) and John Lozada (10,000-m run).

Go is the only National Sports Association head who admitted they have no chance of winning a model in the quadriennial meet, opting to use the funds they will ask from the Philippine Sports Commission for other realizable goal such as the SEAG and the Asian Games.