Phl sports back to square one

LONDON – Philippine Olympic Committee president Peping Cojuangco, sensing another debacle under his term, said the various national sports associations must soon prepare for the 2016 Olympics.

The problem is where they are going to start. The first problem is they don’t know what they want to accomplish, and if they do, they don’t know how to do it. Or if they do, they don’t do it.

In 2009, a diver was asking her Chinese coach that she be trained in a dive with a 3.0 difficulty. This level, if done with perfect entry to the water, can contend for the gold in the Asian Games and even the Olympics. Filipinos have the perfect size for diving and the divers have been trained for at least six years.

In the London Olympics, the dives are performed by the medalists with a minimum of 3.0 difficulty, which requires 2.5 somersaults that should end in perfect entry to the water.

The Chinese coach disagreed, saying it will take two years to even master the fundamentals. So the diver had to stick to a routine – with a lower degree of difficulty – which she did day-in and day-out during the last 10 years.

The diver said she could do it. The coach said she simply couldn’t do it.

Their old routine earned Filipino divers the gold in the 2005 SEA Games but they were soon overtaken by Malaysia and Vietnam in subsequent Games where more difficult dives are executed. They could not go beyond the elimination round in the Asian Games and the Olympics.

The original group of six divers has semi-retired, leaving zero participation in the Olympics.

And to think that TRACE is a perfect venue for training with a state-of-the-art diving pool and a trampoline for land training. 

Daniel Coakley, a promising 6-1 swimmer from Hawaii, has both the height and physique for the 50m freestyle. Although he won a gold medal in the SEA Games, his style was unorthodox but since he was only 19, it was not too late to change his strokes. He wanted to train in Los Angeles under the new program but the funds were not forthcoming. He had to work to be able to support his training. He eventually retired from swimming. So did the likes of Miguel Molina and Fil-Americans who won the gold from 2005.

What were left were Jessie King Lacuna and Jasmine Alkhaldi who were thrust into the Olympics without the preparation of Olympians.

Hidilyn Diaz, who showed promise as a teenager from Davao, was brought to Manila to join the national pool in 2007. Here is a girl who wanted to win the gold. She and the weightlifting association knew she could do it. And both proceeded to prepare for Beijing.

She trained in China for the 2008 Olympics. She was in Group 2, among the low lifters, but she improved her mark. She lost but she was not giving up. Neither was weightlifting association president Monico Puentevella. After all, the Olympic defending champion was semi-retired and old, and will soon be out of the scene. Diaz was only 18 and was good for two more Olympics.

In the 2011 SEA Games, she took the bronze behind two Thais. She took the bronze in the World Junior Championships. That served as an encouragement for her to go farther. She dropped her studies, left her family the next two years and resumed training.