‘Tinimbang sila ngunit kulang’ IT ain’t over but it’s practically over for Filipino athletes competing in the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, although it’s still a few days to go before the region’s premier sporting showpiece comes to an end. The Filipino

his Filipino and other Filipino-foreigner teammates in the Philippine 5 whom he had not seen or practiced with for months.

The country’s female volleyball players, meanwhile, also seemed to believe the hype that after 36 years (!), they could spiked their way through Thailand and Indonesia (they did win against Hong Kong) and that “top” collegiate players could breeze through Asia’s--and Southeast Asia’s--best.

Team Philippines did try to mix it up in the non-traditional--wushu, pencak silat and ju jitsu--and results were much more encouraging as shown by the bronze medals won in these events.

In categories where there are weight divisions, like weightlifting, the Philippines stands a better chance of medaling, as proved not once but twice by weightlifter Hidylin Diaz (silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics and gold in the 2018 Jakarta and Palaembang Asian Games).

And despite, the generally poor performance of the boxing team (at this writing), the sport still offers the country a glimmer very elusive Olympic gold medal would be in our hands.

Being patient is a virtue, but making excuses is not.

In the 18th Asian Games that comes Philippine sports honchos in boxing cried cheating, saying a female pug was robbed The same cry was made in gymnastics where the heralded Carlos Yulo failed in his golden bid in the vault, ending up fourth (he should have won bronze, ac Curiously, Yulo, just 18, has acknowledged his mistakes even in his favorite event--floor exercise--where he eventually landed 7th after having topped the The blame game was also played by dragon-boat (“false start” by Indonesia that also eventually took the gold medal in one race) and biking (“lack of government Better luck next time, but the problem has nothing to do with the weighing scale.

The problem is also not about puso (heart), it’s about balls (please forgive us Hidylin, Yuka, Bianca and Lois Kaye).

Tinimbang sila at talaga namang sobra!