The Dragon Warriors and the V8 Supercars

For several days now, the Philippine Dragon Boat Team had been receiving unexpected accolades from unexpected groups and appeared in TV programs whose definition of athletics is more on showbiz gossip. Some interviews are well meaning, others are just simply in for the ride. Well, that’s the price to pay for success. 

Just recently, a board member of the Philippine Olympic Committee claimed that our Dragon Warriors were doped and entered a competition for beginners. As usual, these claims from an overpaid geriatric mind are unsubstantiated.  

Let’s take doping. Juicing up athletes is an expensive experiment and you need a qualified doctor to do it and monitor progress. As per my limited knowledge on the matter, it takes months to have the desired effect.

The PDBT were in dire need of logistics and were using their old wooden paddles as they can’t afford to use their fibreglass ones for fear of breaking them before the competition.   According to info, they were using for practice a bigger and heavier boat. 

Tournament time came and the equipment used were now hi tech. You don’t need to have an IQ of 400 to figure out why the PDBT came thru. They’re so used to practicing with old and heavy gear that when given with lighter and improved equipment and with the same techniques, records are meant to be broken, medals are meant to dangle from their necks.

The only substance that the PDBT will be positive of are traces of Cobra Energy Drink. As to the beginners’ thing, let me ask this question - is there an international or world championship tournament for beginners?

It is an anomaly for the POC for not recognizing our paddlers but accusing them as cheats and downplaying their achievements is too much.

 And putting more in too much, the PSC last Wednesday agreed in principle with the Australian-based organizers of the V8 Supercars Series to help them facilitate with the necessary requirements to allow them to have a race leg at the Subic Speedway sometime in 2013.

The issue here is the decision of the PSC. If they had merely endorsed the proposal and have a private individual or corporation do the rest, reactions would have been subdued.

As per reports, the PSC will assist in the completion of the required documents for the race to push thru. The FIA, or Federacion Internationale l’Automobile, the world’s governing body for motorsports (includes Formula 1, NASCAR and Moto GP) is not part of the International Olympic Committee or the Association of IOC-Registered International Sports Federations.

The non-inclusion of the PDBT to IOC-registered sports federations is the precise reason why the POC and PSC did not give a hoot to the team’s international battle. Then comes Australia strutting their V8s and parading PSC as their lead agency. 

Both the PDBT and V8 Supercars are not accredited by the IOC. What’s the catch here? The smell is more than fishy.

A V8 supercar costs A$600,000, with the engine alone setting you back by A$130,000. To maintain a 2-car team, you need A$10 million a year. Do the math and convert Aussie dollar to pesos and the cost is scandalous. But nothing is scandalous to the high and the mighty of our governing sports agencies if.....

Republic Act 6847, the law that created the PSC states that the commission’s objective is to :

- provide leadership, formulate the policies and set the priorities and direction of all amateur sports promotion and development particularly giving grassroots participation

- encourage wide participation of all sectors, government and private in amateur sports promotion and development

- supplement government appropriations for sports promotion and development Basing on the PSC’s three objectives, the direction of the leadership is in limbo, policies and priorities are ridiculous and highly politicized that sports promotion and development are better handled by private entities.

As to grassroots and amateur development, spare us the bull crap.   The grass has wilted down to its dried roots. Only the insensitive filthy rich can afford motorsports and flaunt their excesses to a country drowning in a whirlpool of high gas prices. But if they can develop our “amateur” bus and jeepney drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher will tremble in their dust.

I suppose there is ample government appropriation for sports promotion and development but with the snakes and crocodiles breeding at the PSC and POC, national athletes are almost always bitten and maimed by these creatures in barong.

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