Looking at Singapore’s approach to the Southeast Asian
Games
by rick olivares
I am not
sure where we are at the moment on the Philippine U-23 football team’s
participation in the Southeast Asian Games. Anyway, I checked with a regional
neighbor’s look at sending athletes and teams to the SEA Games.
Just to be
very objective about it, I got in touch with two Singaporean media colleagues
and this is what they had to say:
“I just did a story yesterday about a swimmer and how officials
will pick and choose his battles. Essentially, he holds national records in
several events including all three backstroke events and the 400m freestyle.
But he may sit out the 100m backstroke at SEA Games because it's right after
the 400m freestyle.
The coach would rather have one gold medal than two silvers.”
Another writer told me, “There are some sports where Singapore is not in
contention for gold but the athletes are sent primarily because they satisfy
either the qualifying mark (which is the bronze medal timing from the 2011 SEA
Games) or other qualifying criteria, i.e. good results or progress from other
overseas events they have participated in the build-up ahead of the cut-off.”
“For SEA
Games, if it is mainly for gold medals, then the Singapore contingent will be
much smaller but with our country hosting the next one in 2015 (the 50th
anniversary of the founding of Singapore), I believe the size will be large as
some will be there for the experience before the big show at home in two years'
time.”
Nevertheless,
this same writer said that the selectors from the National Olympic Committee
have the final say. “They have to meet certain qualifying marks. The NOC is
more lenient when it comes to the SEA Games but is stricter when it comes to
the Asian Games or the Olympics. But they still have to satisfy the criteria.”
One such
team is Singapore’s national basketball team that finished third at the SEABA
Championships. Coach Neo Beng Siang said that he hopes their strong showing
(Singapore has not won a Sea Games basketball medal since 1979) will bolster
their bid for a nod to the Myanmar Games.
When
Singapore hosts the Southeast Asian Games in 2015, the games will be held from
June 5-16 because of favorable weather conditions.
---------------------------------
Following the row between Philippine Football and the Philippine Olympic Committee/Philippine Sports Commission, I am trying my best to understand the positions of both sides. So I wanted to check what was happening with our Southeast Asian neighbours. I checked with colleagues from Singapore and this is what I got. Will see what others I can dig up. Personally I hope that the Philippine Under-23 football team is sent.
Following the row between Philippine Football and the Philippine Olympic Committee/Philippine Sports Commission, I am trying my best to understand the positions of both sides. So I wanted to check what was happening with our Southeast Asian neighbours. I checked with colleagues from Singapore and this is what I got. Will see what others I can dig up. Personally I hope that the Philippine Under-23 football team is sent.
With all due respect to the PSC, that body seems to lack both a vision for Philippine sports or a coherent strategy for developing our athletes. Your writer friend mentioned that:
ReplyDelete"There are some sports where Singapore is not in contention for gold but the athletes are sent primarily because they satisfy either the qualifying mark (which is the bronze medal timing from the 2011 SEA Games) or other qualifying criteria, i.e. good results or progress from other overseas events they have participated in the build-up ahead of the cut-off.”
“For SEA Games, if it is mainly for gold medals, then the Singapore contingent will be much smaller but with our country hosting the next one in 2015 (the 50th anniversary of the founding of Singapore), I believe the size will be large as some will be there for the experience before the big show at home in two years' time.”
Recently, I had the opportunity to listen to Craig Groeschel offer up his insights on the learning process. Craig Groeschel is the primary force behind the YouVersion Bible App, which as of yesterday, has been downloaded 100 million times. He said that for many people, "Failure is not an option." But for those who want to effect substantive change, "Failure is not an option: it is NECESSARY for success".
As a former teacher, I understand the need to nurture people into their potential. People go to school not because they know everything, but primarily because it's the best place to fail. In school, failure has a purpose. There are people who can guide you, or encourage you, or simply hold you to a standard of excellence that you are capable of reaching, but never thought of reaching for.
Sadly, the PSC is neither a teacher, a mentor, a developer, nor a grizzled drill sergeant out to make men out of boys or adults out of children. The PSC seems to have no idea what to do with our athletes and the athletic programs they represent.
The POC President stated in a recent interview that there was nothing final yet on whether the football teams would be allowed to play in the SEA Games. They are still open to allowing the football teams to play. He reiterated too that the main criterion in deciding whether to allow Phil teams to participate is their competitiveness visavis their opponents, and their perceived ability to win the gold medal, backed by as much data as possible.
ReplyDeleteSo the PFF's work is cut out, to make the case that the Men's and Women's national Football teams are indeed competitive against their opponents. The work will entail assessments of each of the players, and the teams as entire units, as well as assessments of the players of the opposing teams.
They can also emphasize an important point, that even a silver or a bronze would be historic achievement for either team, considering the past performance of the Philippines in the SEA Games football events.
It would help too if the PFF, for the meantime, would not bring the issue to the press, and concentrate on presenting its case to the POC and the PSC. These officials are quite sensitive to public criticism. Also, POC President Cojuangco emphasized his stand, that he is very much against "have money, will travel and participate" policy.
The current policy of the POC and the PSC, born out of the criticism they got after previous international competitions, is really like shooting ourselves in the foot, for so many reasons. How can new winners and champions emerge if they do not even get the opportunity to play, no matter how hard they've trained. With the logic used in the policy, the country shouldn't even send any team to the Asian Games or Olympic Games as well. If every country had the same policy in sending their athletes to competitions, pretty soon only 3-5 countries would be fielding teams. I am totally against this policy. The best athletes of the country in their sport, who work and train hard, and have good NSA organizations, deserve the chance to compete in the SEA Games. our region's Olympics.
Still, it would help for the PFF to treat this reality as just another bad referee, and focus on the remaining opportunity to convince the POC and PSC to allow our Football teams to play in the coming SEA Games. Puede pa.
PSC - POC are failures . they failed to deliver sports development . waste of peoples money . buwagin na yan
ReplyDelete