Doomed from the start?

This is as chaotic as it gets. Unbelievably, the Philippines sent two contingents to the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos that opened Wednesday.

The first contingent was care of the PSC of Harry Angping; the other was the group supported by POC of Danding Cojuangco.

The fiasco started when PSC insisted to send athletes that are medal potential. A special committee set-up for the SEA Games supposedly picked them from a national pool.

The other set of athletes were those from a development pool, or promising athletes, that POC felt should see action in Laos.

After two sports officials couldn’t disagree without being disagreeable, something like this happens: one country with two delegations in one event!

These two groups of athletes, who left separately from NAIA, are in one apartment in the Games village! Athletes are athletes and officials are officials, but then you couldn’t discount the possibility of badgering among them. At the airport, waiting for their flights, the athletes were overheard asking each other which team they belong.

Trouble is plaguing the team. The latest was the disqualification of 12 out of 13 cyclists from the Games by the governing body of cycling - the UCI. The cyclists are already in Laos and we spent P840,000 just for sending them there. Now they will just be tourists.

We’ll lose at least three gold medals as well. Cycling produced four golds for the county in the 2007 Thailand SEA Games. Now it’s up to Cebuana Marites Bibit to compete for the Philippines that is if her motivation is still intact.

Last report from Laos, Cojuangco was visiting the athletes but he was unable to meet most of them because they were having their siesta.

Angping is absent. He stayed home because he said he wasn’t invited.

This will give Cojuangco the chance to captain the two teams. I don’t know how could he lead a group of athletes whose participation in the Games was doomed from the start.

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CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Yong and Donna Cruz Larrazabal and Harty Satina for conquering the Macau Marathon last weekend. The buzz is that Dr. Yong and Harty improved their personal records. Of course, Donna ran her first marathon with flying colors.

Another group of Cebuano runners, on the same weekend, competed in the Singapore marathon namely Atan and Geson Guardo, Mark Laus, Arnold Palma, Joel Garganera, Boying Rodriguez, Raffy Uytiepo and Alan Delantar. Then there’s IBP-Cebu City Chapter President Ramsey Quijano who completed the 21K half-marathon.

Among those who completed the full marathon, Raffy Uytiepo’s run was unbelievable. No, he didn’t win the top prize, he finished the race without the benefit of training!

Two days before they left for Singapore, Raffy was mimicking Elvis during Marco Polo’s media appreciation party. The week before that, we ran in the Eco Fun Run.

This means, Raffy didn’t have time to train, do his long runs or even take some sleep a few days before the race. During the race, he said he felt good after 25K, and just plodded his way to the finish.

It’s sort of a record, what he did. He finished his 11th marathon, 22 years after his last race! However, I should say: “Don’t do this at all!” You don’t run a marathon without preparation. Raffy was able to do it because of his experience.

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Belated anniversary greetings to Mark and Caecent Magsumbol who celebrated their anniversary last Tuesday, Dec. 8.

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