Deserving swimmer left out of SEAG team

The parent of a former member of the national training pool yesterday put to task the leadership of the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (PASA) for the non-inclusion of her son in the Philippine swimming team competing in next month’s Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.

Rosita Uy told The STAR that his son Benjamin deserved to be in the roster and maintained that the 19-year-old La Salle student was stricken off the list despite having competitive times in the tryouts.

The young Uy was the only one of the seven members of the pool who trained hard to make the grade but failed to qualify in the "cut-off" time set by PASA for the SEA Games. The elder Uy later learned from her fellow parents (of swimmers) that the PASA suddenly had a change of heart and included all but Benjamin in the roster.

"I just couldn’t believe that those (swimmers) whose times were slower than my son were included in the team. It was very demoralizing for my son because he trained hard for this," said Mrs. Uy. "As a parent, I felt this was done intentionally because only six athletes were included and my son was the only one left from the training pool."

The other members of the swimming team are Raphael Chua, Evan Grabador, Lambert Guiriba, Mark Kalaw, Louie Marquez, Juan Miguel Mendoza, Miguel Molina, Juan Carlo Piccio, Luica Dacanay, Lizza Danila, Marichi Gandionco, Jenny Guerrero, Heidi Gem Ong and Jacky Pangilinan. The coaches are Rene Concepcion and Gregory Colmenares.

The elder Uy lodged his complaint to Steve Hontiveros, chairman of the POC-PSC Task Force for the Vietnam SEAG, but claimed no action was taken for the past two weeks with the SEA Games date fast approaching.

In her letter to Hontiveros, Mrs. Uy said that it is the greatest dream and aspiration of every athlete to qualify and join a prestigious international competition like the SEA Games and that her son, along with the six other swimmers in the training pool, trained hard to be able to make it to the SEAG-bound team.

However, she claimed that the PASA executive committee suddenly decided to break up the training pool, thus hampering the athletes’ preparation and leaving just two swimmers who were able to qualify in the cut-off time for the SEAG.

The parents of those who didn’t make it to the RP team accepted PASA’s decision but Mrs. Uy later learned from her fellow parents that their sons and daughters received letters from PASA acknowledging that all six of them were re-included in the SEAG roster.

"As parents, we were all surprised why only my son was deliberately excluded in the lineup," Mrs. Uy lamented.

To prove that his son deserved to be in the list, Mrs. Uy cited the times of at least two swimmers whose best times in their respective events as against the cut-off time were much slower than that of Benjamin.

A second year pre-med student, Benjamin specializes in the butterfly event, breaking three records in the UAAP and a national mark to win the MVP. In his SEAG buildup, he churned out a best time of 58.75 seconds in the 100m, or 2.37 seconds slower than the cut-off time of 56.38. He also registered a best time of 24.87 seconds in the 50m freestyle or 1.32 seconds slower than the cut-off time.

"It is quite obvious that the two events wherein my son could be entered have time differences of only 2.37 seconds and 1.32 seconds, respectively, compared to the two swimmers who have differences of 3.89, 4.12, 4.44 and 5.10 seconds," she said. "So, how can PASA justify that the two swimmers whose time differences are much slower than my son’s are better qualified?"

Mrs. Uy also said that her husband and other swimmers’ parents had been very critical of PASA’s system, particularly in dismantling the national pool since "the momentum of their training was greatly jeopardized."

She added that her husband has had a personal conflict with one member of the PASA executive committee during the member’s stint as a club coach.