Veterans must go for promising bets

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (Patafa) has started cleaning its pool of athletes and coaches, making a thorough performance-based review to make sure only the performers remain in the roster.

Patafa secretary-general Renato Unso said the “non-performers” among the tracksters in the 48-man pool will have to go and give way to fresh talents. The same holds true for the 12 coaches in the Patafa roster, who will all be subject to evaluation.

“Lilinisin natin ang athletes, tatanggalin natin ang dapat tanggalin, ipapasok ang dapat ipasok (We’re cleaning up the athletes’ ranks; the non-performers will be stricken off the list and new athletes who deserve to be there will be infused),” Unso said.

Unso said 26 prospects from the NCAA, UAAP, SCUAA and the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Bacolod have been identified for possible inclusion into the new pool, replacing the holdovers “who haven’t won any medal in at least two Southeast Asian Games stints.”

As for the coaches, Unso said the association has terminated their contracts, which will last until end of July. They will have to re-apply, along with aspiring new mentors like Arneil Ferrera and Rene Herrera.

“We’ll evaluate them based on their performance and the performance of their respective athletes,” he said.

Patafa, headed by Philip Ella Juico, was among the best-performing association in the last SEA Games, copping five gold medals, seven silvers and nine bronzes. Fil-Am hurdler Eric Cray is, to date, the only Pinoy athlete who has qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.