The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Robert Andaya
As far as Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino is concerned, finishing a fighting fifth overall in the recently- concluded Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia. Is enough reason to celebrate.
That’s because the 840-strong Filipino delegation could have finished even better than its fifth-place finish.
“To me our fifth-place finish was already a strong performance,” said Tolentino during the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.
The Philippines brought home a total 58 gold, 85 silver and 117 bronze medals from Cambodia, surpassing the country’s 52-70-104 medal haul in Vietnam last year.
But Tolentino claimed several missed opportunities in the battle for the gold dampened the Filipinos’ celebration as they finished behind Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and host country Cambodia in the overall medal standings.
Tolentino also claimed that 40 of the 87 silver medals of the Filipino athletes in Cambodia came in subjective sports. He said the outcome ended in the hands of the judges.
“Those 40 medals, nahati sa Vietnam and Cambodia. So, analyze it. Conservatively, (we lost) about 20 golds,” added Tolentino during the weekly forum presented by San Miguel Corporation, MILO, Philippine Sports Commission, POC, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).
Another reason, Tolentino said, was size of the Filipino contingent, which was dwarfed by the top three countries in the final medal tally.
Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, each fielded around 2,000 athletes compared to the Philippines’ 849.
The high-ranking sports official from Tagaytay City lauded the Filipino athletes for a job well done.
Based on official records, the medal output was just one gold medal short of the 59 which the country won in the 1987 SEA Games in Jakarta, the same year when the late track and field queen Lydia de Vega-Mercado, swimmer Eric Buhain, and bowlers Paeng Nepomuceno and Crystal Soberano rose to prominence.
“Sayang. I was really looking at 60 golds for our athletes,” explained Tolentino, who is now looking forward to the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in September.