The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) remains in high-spirit on its campaign in the Southeast Asian Games despite being embroiled anew in an issue involving its so-called prodigal daughter.
Patafa President Philip Ella Juico said no amount of distractions could keep the Filipino athletes out of focus in their training for the August 19 to 31 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Juico is confident about the country’s chances that he believes surpassing the five gold medals it won in track and field in the Singapore edition two years ago is achievable.
The Patafa chief said gold medals are guaranteed from reigning SEA Games sprint king Eric Cray, pole vaulter Ernest Obiena, triple jumper Mark Harry Diones, and long jumper Janry Ubas, who recently leapt 7.88 meter during the association’s trials last week to surpass the 7.75 meter jump of Supanara of Thailand in winning the gold in Singapore.
“They are much better than the three golds I mentioned in Congress two to three weeks ago,” said Juico, recalling about his appearance at the House regarding an inquiry about the country’s SEA Games campaign two months from now.
Juico’s display of positive mindset in the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the Golden Phoenix Hotel on Tuesday comes off the heels of Patafa’s decision to drop Rio Olympian Mary Joy Tabal from the national roster for what officials describe as her utter lack of respect and discipline on federation regulations.
Tabal clinched a silver medal in Singapore in 2015. Although she is not guaranteed of winning gold in Kuala Lumpur, the 27-year-old pride of Cebu remains as the country’s best woman marathoner.
But a new series of misunderstanding with Patafa officials and coaches led to her falling out of the graces of the federation.
“I just want to stress two points here. One, we represent the Patafa community, the athletes and coaches, and what we’re doing is to preserve and protect the community and the value that it stands for,” said Juico in the same forum presented by San Miguel Corp., Golden Phoenix Hotel, Accel, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. where he was joined by secretary-general Renato Unso, national coach Jojo Posadas, and marketing manager Edward Kho.
“And second is technical excellence and adherence to core life,” he added. “We try to be fair to all our athletes. Walang special treatment dito, walang VIP treatment dito.”
Reading between the lines, there still remains a slim chance of Tabal being reinstated in the national team especially with the marathoner already sending feelers that she’s willing to iron things out with Patafa officials.
“We wiill cross the bridge when we get there,” Juico said.
But the Patafa chief admitted it wouldn’t be easy especially with the federation needing to deal with majority of the national team members.
“We have a community of athletes here, and we value their feelings and beliefs on issues like this,” Juico said. “So we’ll think of the welfare of athletes and coaches who have been very professional about what we’re doing.”
Image credits: Nonie Reyes