PINOY ATHLETES DEDICATE PERFORMANCE TO EARTHQUAKE AND TYPHOON SURVIVORS
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 07 Dec 2013
The country?s two top leaders in sports ? Philippine Olympic committee president Jose ?Peping? Cojuangco and Philippine Sports Commission chair Ritchie Garcia -- called on the small 220-athlete Philippine delegation to dedicate their performance in the coming 27th Southeast Asian Games to their countrymen back home, especially the victims of calamities in the Visayas and Mindanao.
?We will be going to Myanmar already winners contrary to what the skeptics perceive because despite what happened to our country and to our people, we will be there to honor our commitment to our neighbors in the region,? Cojuangco said during last Thursday?s SCOOP Sa Kamayan on Air program over DZAR.
?That despite the sufferings brought about by powerful earthquake and super-typhoon Yolanda, with several of us in the national contingent also victims ourselves, we will be marching during the opening ceremony heads up and ready to make our presence felt,? Cojuangco stressed.
Garcia agreed, even as he exhorted the athletes to do their best amidst the unfavorable circumstances that occurred between the last Games two years ago until the final events to be contested had been approved by the SEA Games Federation that could prove detrimental to the country?s campaign.
?When the final sports to be disputed came out adding events totally foreign to our athletes and scrapping those were we are traditionally strong coupled with the destruction brought about by nature, many, including our own people diagnosed our chances as bleak, some even pushing the idea of a boycott,? Garcia recalled.
?es, we might be able to win as many medals as we would?ve wanted, but as Cong Peping said, we are already winners even as the actual competitions begin on December 11, ? Garcia during the SCOOP Sa Kamayan On Air, which temporarily takes the place of the SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session held every Friday at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura due to heavy booking at the regular host restaurant that occurs during Christmas season.
?To a certain extent, our detractors may be right that our athletes might not even duplicate our sixth overall placing as a result of our measly 36 gold medals won in 2011 in Indonesia, but that doesn?t also mean we will be coming home empty- handed, the PSC top honcho reasoned out.
?Our athletes are prepared, our contingent is made up of a long tedious selection process conducted by the SEA Games task force that produced only the best there are to be included,? he assured. ?I can boast that our athletes will be there, fighting their hearts out to be able to be able to participate that win or lose, they will be competing honorably for flag and country.?
?The only message I can relay to our athletes is compete as you have done so before. Have fun, enjoy yourself and if you can bring home a medal, well and good. Win friends because winning them for the country and our people is more than the medals you can be carrying back home? Garcia, who had just been named chef de mission of next year?s Asian Games, said.
Cojuangco, who as before refused to make projection, said the Filipino athletes already know what to their responsibilities as sports ambassadors. ?They know what to do when they?re at the playing fields. They know they?re carrying the name of the country and the Filipinos.? Cojuangco issued an appeal to the Filipinos offer a prayer to the athletes as they will be doing battle with the best in the region carrying the hope of rising back to the sufferings brought about by several natural calamities that hit the nation.
Filipino athletes, he said, have, time and again, been earning the respect of their peers in Southeast Asia and even in the world. Never had their performance in the years that past been a debacle as others put it.
?Even their performance in the last SEA Games was not a debacle,? he noted. ?Binibilang lang nila ang gold medal na napanalunan. Eh paano yung silver at bronze medal? In fact our total 169 medal won is better than the number of medals taken home by those in the top five nations in the standings. ?
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