A GOLD medal from an event that was not only a last-minute addition to the 20th Asian Games calendar but had been totally unknown to even the most avid sports followers — this is what averted the country’s campaign in the regional sportsfest from disaster.
Jeus Yape may be the unsung hero for embattled Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Bambol Tolentino whose anxious wait — and prayers — for a fourth gold for the country was answered by the young man’s victory last Friday in the introductory sport of virtual taekwondo.
Yes. That’s right. Virtual taekwondo.
EXPLAINER: What is virtual taekwondo and how does it work?
If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone. This event is so unknown it is almost strange, and the victory is so improbable it threw sleepless sports officials into a quandary as an athlete in a sport they knew so little about turned out to be an answer to their fervent prayers.
Jeus, it turned out, became the savior of these Philippine officials. He beat his Vietnamese rival to clinch the gold medal, making it the country’s fourth - the minimum target set by the POC when it sent athletes to battle three weeks ago.
The POC had set the modest target of four gold medals in Nagoya, Japan, the same number of gold medals won by Filipino athletes at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
The POC can of course claim that a gold is a gold — doesn’t matter where it came from. And with that, the POC and its drumbeaters will announce that the campaign was a success.
But if Tolentino and cohorts call this success, is there failure?
To give credit where credit is due, our athletes did not fail. They gave it their all, sacrificed everything, left every inch of themselves on the battlefield. No one can take away their sweat and pride. We ourselves root and cheer them on all the way to the end of the Games.
We do not feel the same way for the POC and the various sports associations. At the very least, they must assess their programs and priorities; they may even, some of them anyway, consider resigning and giving others the chance to find the new path to victory.
Four gold medals, one of them almost strange to the taste, are not exactly reason for a joyful Malacañang reception. This campaign is an underwhelming escapade that does not do justice to the humongous amounts spent for preparation — it’s not a wild guess to say a billion pesos, with no official figures provided thus far; and for the unexplained number of delegates — a huge total of 447 that brought home 28 medals of 4 gold, 8 silver, and 16 bronze that was 17th overall in the team standimgs.
Our production, sad to say, pales in comparison to the achievements of some Southeast Asian neighbors:
Thailand: 18 gold, 13 silver, 20 bronze medals or a total of 51
Malaysia: 9-5-16 – 30
Indonesia: 5-11-23 – 29.
But, make no mistake, there are other heroes all over the place.
In athletics, John Tolentino and Victoria Bossong, who broke a long medal drought that had shamed our track-and-field program for decades.
They did not win gold, but the bronzes — Tolentino in the 110 hurdles; Bossong in the 800 meters - carried weight.
There is Amaya Cojuangco, who brought home a silver in archery, another breakthrough in a sport that has long languished in neglect but is now showing signs of a revival.
Eldrew Yulo, at 18, looks ready to step outside the shadow of his illustrious brother after winning a bronze in the horizontal bar.
Then there are the silver-medal finishes of the women’s 3x3 basketball team, Carlo Paalam in boxing, and Jean Claude Saclag in mixed martial arts.
It is no small matter that the very modest three-person mixed martial arts team won two medals in all, with Carlos Alvarez bringing home a bronze, proving that a lean three-man team will be superior to flabby contingents, which is what we might call what we had for football, rugby, baseball, softball, and, again, for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
There is sadness, of course, in the unexpected loss of Alex Eala in her tennis semifinal, Gilas Pilipinas in men's basketball, and many more who narrowly missed medals.
The most appalling losses, it must be said, were absorbed by the men’s and women’s volleyball teams where so much was expected and none was delivered.
The women’s squad finished 9th and the men’s team was 13th, underwhelming outcomes for a sport where hundreds of millions had been poured, such as the P2B of mostly taxpayers’ money spent in hosting last year’s world men’s volleyball championship.
Just imagine if just a fraction of that amount was spent for volleyball players’ hard-core training, foreign competition, team building, fitness and nutrition — we just might have gotten our teams to perform better.
'Overwhelming success'
But give it to our sports officials to find it in their hearts to justify these setbacks and actually claim that the sojourn was an overwhelming success.
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Patrick Gregorio happily noted that Team Philippines made history by having the best medal production of 29 since the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta, where he said we won 27 medals.
But even Gregorio’s spin of spotlighting the total-medal output versus the gold-medal production did not pass the test of accuracy.
In 1962, the country won 37 medals — 7 golds, 6 silvers, 24 bronzes — according to records. It was not 27.
Gregorio’s role as spin master for the Philippine team was a source of wonder to us. Maybe that’s because Gregorio has built a reputation as a credible sports leader with his countless projects as PSC chair.
But this also shows that POC president Tolentino has lost his mojo. Instead of facing media for an honest assessment of the country’s Asian Games performance, he left it to Gregorio to do the talking.
Gregorio, a good soldier, obliged. But his spin of total-medal count instead of abject failure of the POC to reach a real gold-medal target may have dented his credibility.
Admitting a failed campaign is not bad. What is, is twisting results to save the skin of so-called sports leaders.
Gregorio said he plans to bring the athletes and their medals to Malacanang so President Marcos can thank and praise them for their sacrifice and victory.
That would be risky.
The president may ask: Just four gold medals?
Now I don’t know how Tolentino and Gregorio will answer this question.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
