POC to review NSAs’ Asiad performance

Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose "Peping" Cojuangco Jr. will sit down with the leaders of the various national sports associations (NSAs) this week to assess their respective performances in the just-concluded Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

Cojuangco will also call the attention of the NSAs that didn’t fare well in the Doha Games, particularly those pre-Asiad favorites tipped to deliver the medals for the country but did not.

"We would want to know what went wrong why they didn’t do well," said Cojuangco, who nevertheless lauded the Filipino athletes’ courage and exploits in the 15-day sporting bash.

The Philippines finished with four gold medals, six silvers and nine bronzes for its best finish since 1962 when it bagged a 7-4-16 (gold-silver-bronze) medal haul.

Boxing produced two gold medals courtesy of Violito Payla and Joan Tipon while billiards and wushu had one each from Antonio Gabica and Rene Catalan, respectively.

"Our athletes performed very well," said Cojuangco.

"And we’re not even counting the fact that we placed fourth, fifth and sixth so many times. Those can be translated into medals so konti pang hasa at training para maganda."

Cojuangco said a thorough review of each NSA program should be made even as he stressed the need to come up with such one suited for our goal to perform well in international competitions.

"We need to review isa-isa and look forward to coming up with a program suited for our goal to perform well in various international competitions," said Cojuangco.

He also called on the country’s leaders to rally behind the athletes and work harder if we are to contend well in the international sporting arena.

"China and the other countries performed well because of the all-out support of their respective leaders.

Todo-todo talaga ang suportang binibigay nila sa kanya-kanyang sports," said Cojuangco.

He pointed to the Middle East countries, four of which landed among the top 15 in the overall tally. Iran finished a strong sixth with 11-15-21 while host Qatar bagged 8-11-11 medals for 11th place. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain finished with 8-0-6 and 7-10-4, respectively.

"There must be something in sports that these countries have seen that they give all-out support to develop and help their respective sports," said Cojuangco.

He added: "We need to study ano ba talaga ang gusto ng ating mga leaders regarding sports. Dapat todo-todo talaga ang suporta para magpakita ng maganda ang ating mga atleta."

The next big international event for the RP athletes is next year’s SEA Games in Thailand where the country is the defending champion after bagging the overall championship here last year.