Should We Send Our Elites to 2025 Bangkok SEAG?
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 06 Aug 2024
Petecio and Villegas.
It certainly took a long time in coming; but now we have athletes that we can truly consider as elites.
Admit it or not, the past two Olympics have the effect of dichotomizing Philippine sport events as well as athletes into world level on one side and into development stage on the other.
With the 2024 Paris Olympics almost over-- with unprecedented gold medal harvest or at least world level performances---the next or immediate sports event of some note in the offing is the Southeast Asian Games set next year in Bangkok, Thailand.
For certain, the Philippines will as always prepare and target a better showing and result from that of the last biennial games held in Kampuchea/Cambodia.
But in the process, we will soon be faced with the questions- Should we send even our elites, especially Olympic champions, medalists and top finishers to Bangkok? Do we need to?
The "thing" with the SEAG is the preponderance to win as many gold medals as possible, especially if one is the host country to win or at least finish high in the overall team reckoning.
Lately, there seems to be not much focus on approximating the Asian regional or world standards. Unlike the other periodic regional competitions within Asia like the East Asian Games (China, Japan, Taiwan, the Koreas and Mongolia) or the Southwest Asian Games (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka).
These are the factors our government and sports authorities should consider in coming to decision.
Of course, there are few sport events in the SEAG that can be considered as world level.
Boxing for example where Thailand and Vietnam are our fiercest competitors.
However, Thailand despite not having a presence in boxing particularly the past two Olympics, can be expected to go all out as host to reassert itself in the event.
Can we risk fielding the likes of Nesthy Petecio, Aira Villegas and Carlo Paalam with the possibility of them losing via controversial or blatantly hometown verdicts? Judging in boxing in the SEAG has not been ideal if one goes by the records.
Some athletics events may be at least Asian level sport in the SEAG like sprints. We may send some of our Olympians.
But definitely not EJ Obiena who is much better off continuing to compete in world level events in Europe.
Weightlifting may be another at least Asian level event and we can send Ando and our other Olympians.
Most definitely Carlos Yulo should continue training and competing in Japan and Europe. But we can send our aspiring gymnasts to compete in Bangkok.
The rule of thumb must be not to send our elites for the sake of winning golds for the overall standings.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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