Give athletes chance to focus on SEAG

Let’s give our athletes a break and give them a chance to focus and concentrate on their preparations for the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games.

This was the appeal yesterday of Philippine Olympic Committee president Celso Dayrit and Philippine Sports Commission chairman Carlos Tuason in yesterday’s PSA forum at the Holiday Inn Manila hotel.

Appearing in the forum sponsored by Agfa, Red Bull and McDonald’s, the country’s top two sports officials said that "everyone should put aside their respective agendas so that our national athletes can focus on the challenge that lies ahead which is the SEA Games."

"Let’s give our athletes a chance, let’s give our country a chance and put all these controversies behind us so we can all rally behind our national team as they train for this important sportfest," said Dayrit a day after a protest run by some athletes and coaches demanded his ouster.

Contrary to the claim by this group that he was insensitive to their plight, Dayrit said he showed his concern for them by even meeting with the archery team for the SEA Games by going directly to their training venue.

Tuason also said that ever since last March’s first demonstration, the PSC had already been directly in touch with the athletes and had set up mechanisms to immediately address their needs.

Tuason cited the fact that the government sports agency has already spent close to P25 million for the equipment of the national sports associations whose athletes will be campaigning in the Kuala Lumpur Games.

Commissioner Richie Garcia, whose oversees the training of elite athletes and also a forum guest, said that the PSC conducts monthly dialogues with the representatives of the athletes to monitor their requirements.

"We have set this up so we can know from the athletes themselves what their needs are. Unfortunately, not all of them attend these dialogues so that we cannot act right away if we do not know what they are asking for," Garcia said.

Tuason lamented that fact that he had been trying to meet the officials of the Amateur Coaches and Athletes Association of the Philippines headed by weightlifting coach Jimmy Sebastian to brief them on what the PSC has been doing "but they still have not approached us since they were inducted a month ago. I could give them all of the details."

Sebastian was one of the leaders behind last Monday’s rally which ended in front of the Rizal Memorial administration building.

Tuason said that there might a "hidden agenda" to last Monday’s demo which was also participated by former POC presidents Cristy Ramos and Julian Malonso and ex-PSC Commissioner Tisha Abundo.

By settiing aside all the intrigues and controversies, Dayrit was optimistic that the Filipino campaigners would improve on their previous medal haul of 20 gold medals and fifth overall performance in the 1999 Brunei SEAG.

Both Dayrit and Tuason reiterated their call that for the interest of flag and country that a moratorium be declared on bickering within amateur sports "so we can look forward to a successful campaign in the SEA Games which is something that our country also badly needs."