Excuses, hand-washing and finger-pointing

The Asian Games close today, with China devastating the rest of the field, and host Korea making a mighty run to catch second-running Japan in the last week of the competition.

And the Philippines? At this point, a disappointing two gold medals, buoyed up by a rash of bronzes, thanks to the martial arts of wushu and taekwondo. So what else is new?

Now begins the rush to jump out of the spotlight. Sports officials who have been tripping over each other to be in front of the cameras in photo-ops for the delegation and medal ceremonies are now going to be scampering for their lives when questions start to be asked. And the answers will be ugly.

I can predict what some of them will say: the silver in equestrian could have been a gold, so we might want to count that. We were cheated in boxing, so one of the golds could have come from there. And throw in another gold or two lost in billiards, and we’re right on target.

Yeah, right.

In my interviewing sports officials for NBN’s coverage of the Asian Games, I noticed a very disturbing pattern. I asked each and every guest over the span of two weeks two regular questions: what happened, and what was their analysis of what we could do better. I didn’t like the answers.

Almost all questioned officiating. Without exception, all said they were well-prepared, but lost due to the breaks or a better game by the opponent. And all bragged about grassroots development programs in place, and how many new athletes were being brought to the sport. And none of them showed any gold medals.

The fact of the matter is that, with the exception of bowling and a few other sports, we were not as prepared as we could have been. More significantly, the deployment of athletes in our strongest sports was not designed to maximize our chances of winning gold medals.

Why on earth were Efren Reyes and Django Bustamante not entered in the 9-ball singles event? These players, who have been functioning outside of the influence of their national sports association, have been the dominant players in that event, not just in Asia, but in the world. It made absolutely no sense at all, unless someone else stood to gain if our other billiards players won the medals instead. We should find out what happened, if the players themselves asked for those assignments or not, though it was not their decision to make.

The same thing happened in soft tennis, when we could have reshuffled our line-up to maximize the medal potentials. This was the complaint our broadcast group received in Busan from athletes themselves, who felt that they were not being properly used.

Rep. Monico Puentevella, who was the longest-serving Philippine Sports Commission commissioner and is now chairman of the House committee on youth and sports, has promised an investigation into the matter. I strongly urge him to review the rosters of athletes to Busan, and talk to the athletes themselves. It’s bad enough we don’t have the resources to properly support all sports, but to squander the meager material blessings we have by politicking is inexcusable, and criminal.

Before these erring and incompetent officials fade back into the woodwork, let’s bring them into the harsh spotlight of culpability. Let’s make them pay for their deliberate misuse of our athletes, our talents, and our money.

Enough hand-washing, finger-pointing and excuses. Save that for Halloween.