Trap shooters cry foul for non-inclusion in Asiad roster
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 02 Oct 2010
For surpassing not only the Southeast Asian Games criteria but the last Asian Games gold-medal winning score, the national trap shooting team should be included in the Philippine delegation bound for the coming 16th edition of the Games this November in Guangzhou, China.
This, Philippine National Shooting Association president Art Macapagal and team member Jethro Dionisio asserted even as they expressed surprised why the team, which also includes Eric Ang and youthful Hagen Alexander Topacio, was scratched from the official list released by the Philippine Olympic to the media.
?Actually, we are confused and at a loss because we only learned about it in the papers,? Macapagal, half-brother of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said in Friday?s SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura.
?There was no formal communications, in fact, we in the team, learned only about it recently,? Dionisio, who was with Macapagal in the session, along with fellow-Olympian Jimmy Recio and PNSA moving target committee chair James Chua during the forum, sponsored by Smart Sports, Mang Inasal and FILA, ? butted in.
Macapagal and company showed members of Sports Communicators Organization of the Philippines results of the 2010 World Cup held in Beijing in April and Munich in august where the trio of Dionisio, Ang and Topacio combined for an impressive 331 points in team competitions, breaking the gold-medal winning score in the last Asiad in Doha.
The gold-medal winning score in the 15th Asiad was 327 points, or four points short of the Filipino marksmen?s total. The silver-medal and bronze-medal output in Doha were 322 and 316, respectively, which were also inferior to the 331 of the Filipino trio.
There was no trap event in the last Southeast Asian Games held in Laos last year, but in its absence, the POC should have considered no less than the World Cup results as basis for the selection of members of the national delegation, according to Macapagal, who is also the president of the Philippine Olympians Association.
The POC had earlier set the SEA Games gold medal as the standard for inclusion in the RP Asiad contingent.
?There are only three values that a National Olympic Committee should be guided in treating athletes ? excellence, discipline and fair play. Our trap shooters, no doubt, have been excelling in international competitions. They have discipline. What they need is fair play,? Macapagal, who, however, still expressed optimism that Dionisio, the only man to win the world speed shooting championship three times, and company can still make it, stressed.
Athletics president Go Teng Kok, who had the same experience with the POC granted two slots earlier despite winning seven gold medals in the SEA Games, likewise, was optimistic for the trap shooters eventual inclusion.
?I will help them even to the extent of going to the Olympic Council of Asia. We owe it to our athletes that they should go if they are qualified, ? Go, who succeeded adding six more of his athletes to the delegation vowed.
Joey Romasanta, POC media group chief and head of the working group that oversaw the selection, said, in a telephone conversation, said the decision was arrived after a series of meeting with Macapagal and other PNSA officials.
?Ang dami naming meeting at ngayon lamang nila inilabas ang mga records na ?yan. Granting that makasama sila, papayag ba sila na king hindi sila manalo ng bronze man lang, magsisipag-resign sila lahat sa shooting? Romasanta asked.
Recio, who is already retired, for his part, said he and the three shooters sought the help to the Philippine Sports Commission through chairman Richie Garcia and commissioner Chito Loyzaga last Monday but what they got was the ire of commissioner Jolly Gomez.
?Na-double whammy yung members ng team. Hindi na makakasama sa Asian Games, nakagalitan pa ni commissioner Gomez,? he said. ?Nagbabakasakali lang naman kami na baka makatulong ang PSC kaya kami nagpunta doon. Baka ma-persuade ng PSC ang POC,? he said.
?It?s a pity if they cannot go. Our trap shooters ay respetado kahit sa world shooting community, kinatatakutan at malaki ang chance na maka-medalya based on their recent performance sa World Cup,? Macapagal lamented.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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