No need for sports summit

LONDON – In the wake of the Philippine delegation’s failure to deliver a single medal in this year’s Olympics, Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco Jr. yesterday ruled out the staging of another sports summit, insisting the pathway to gold is clear but so are the roadblocks.

The country sent 11 athletes, including three repeat Olympians, to compete in eight sports here. The comebackers were long jumper Marestella Torres, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz and archer Mark Javier. None came close to snatching a medal. 

Javier and another archer Rachelle Anne Cabral-de la Cruz were bundled out in the first round of one-on-one knockout duels in the male and female divisions. Javier, 30, was ranked 55th of 64 after shooting 72 arrows in the seeding process then fell to No. 10 Brady Ellison of the US, 7-1, in the race to six points. De la Cruz, 27, was seeded 48th and bowed to No. 17 Inna Stepanova of Russia by a similar 7-1 score. Both best-of-five matches reached only up to the fourth end. Skeet shooter Brian Rosario, 30, hit a perfect 25 in the third of five rounds but missed 15 clay targets overall to finish 31st of 36. Judo’s Tomohiko Hoshina, 25, competed with a bum left knee, nursing a torn ligament, and succumbed to Korea’s Kim Sung Min in 65 seconds on an “ippon” in his first match.

Teenaged swimmers Jasmine Alkhaldi, 19, and Jessie Khing Lacuna, 18, were way off the winning mark. Alkhaldi clocked 57.13 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle to wind up 34th of 50 with China’s Tang Yi taking the gold with a time of 53.28. Lacuna did 1:52.91 in the 200-meter freestyle to place 36th of 41 as China’s Sun Yang hit paydirt with a swim of 1:46.24. Diaz, 21, was the delegation’s flag-bearer in the opening ceremony but failed to fly the banner high in crashing out of the 58 kilogram category, unable to lift 118 kilograms in three attempts of the clean-and-jerk. She was tied with Colombia’s Lina Marcela Rivas for the last place among 19 competitors.

Torres, 31, registered distances of 5.98, 6.21 and 6.22 in three heats of the long jump, winding up 11th of 16 while Rene Herrera, 33, was dead last among 21 finishers in the 5,000-meter run. Herrera’s consolation was after he crossed the finish line in 14:44.11, UK’s Mo Farah – the gold medalist in the 10,000-meter route – raised his arm to acknowledge the gutsy feat. Herrera was all alone in the end, about 600 meters off the lead pace on the 400-meter track. Fil-Am Danny Caluag, 25, was nowhere near the class shown by 16 semifinalists in imploding over five heats in the BMX event. In the time trials, Caluag had the slowest clocking of 40.9 seconds among 31 finishers. He was fifth in the first heat, seventh in the second, sixth in the third, fifth in the fourth and sixth in the fifth to score 29 points, good for 28th place of 32.

Lightflyweight boxer Mark Anthony Barriga beat Italy’s Manuel Cappai, 17-7, in his first outing then lost a 17-16 decision to Kazakhstan’s Birzhan Zhakypov in his second. Canadian referee Roland Labbe facilitated Barriga’s exit by slapping a penalty on the Filipino for headbutting. Without the penalty, Barriga would’ve won, 16-15. Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) president Ricky Vargas filed a formal protest in a bid to overturn the verdict but it was denied by the technical jury. 

“I hope the Olympics will finally open the eyes of everyone to get more support,” said Cojuangco. “It’s the same thing we’ve been asking for so many years. I know what I’m going to do. We’ll need to pick up potentials from Batang Pinoy, the Philippine National Games, Palarong Pambansa and other grassroots development programs, talk to the athletes and bring them initially to Baguio City for training. But we’ve got to support them with experts in physical fitness and nutrition. We’ve got to use sports science to make our athletes competitive on a global scale. The talent is there. The challenge is to harness the talent and take our best athletes to the next level.”

Cojuangco said in the long haul, the goal is to set up a training center at Clark Field in Angeles City. “At the moment, we’ve moving on a small scale,” he continued. “With a little more funds from government and the private sector and the cooperation of the Department of Education and LGUs and the close coordination between the POC and PSC, I’m confident we can do a lot even in a small way. My target is to be competitive at the Southeast Asian Games next year and the Youth Olympics in 2014.”

Despite the meltdown here, Cojuangco said it’s not a hopeless case for the Philippines to bounce back and someday, win the elusive Olympic gold medal. “It can be done,” he said. “It’s not like it’s so impossible or such a gigantic mission. I’ve talked with (PSC chairman) Richie (Garcia) and we’ve agreed to do what it takes to move forward. We want to set up the training center with the full use of sports science to support our athletes. We’ll ask government to allocate the right amount of funds for sports as mandated by law.”

Cojuangco said in a recent Olympic convention in Moscow, London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games head Lord Sebastian Coe spoke about Olympism as a subject in English schools. “It’s really not just about winning,” he added. “It’s about rearing good citizens. Winning will engage or inspire other people to get involved in a particular sport. The Olympics will do that. Olympism is a spirit that evokes values. That’s why it’s important for the school system to include sports in the curriculum, for young students to be properly oriented into sports.”

The English newspaper Daily Telegraph recently launched a campaign called “Keep The Flame Alive” to maintain the UK’s competitive edge in sports beyond this year’s Olympics by calling for the return of a strong sports curriculum in schools. It’s a campaign that Cojuangco also has in mind.

Olympic triathlon gold medalist Alistair Brownlee said, “One of the biggest things about legacy is that it’s not about money, it’s about the attitude, it’s about inspiring teachers at schools to go that little bit further to help their kids learn a sport, it’s about inspiring the kids themselves to try sports.”

Cojuangco’s message is if the Philippines hopes to improve on its Olympic performance in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, steps must be taken now to support Filipino athletes with proper funding for continuous international exposure, expert coaching and world-class training facilities backed by sports science.