POSF bats for OCR inclusion

Philippine Obstacle Sports Federation (POSF) is pulling all stops to include obstacle course racing (OCR) in the calendar of events of the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

POSF president Alberto Agra said they have already started to reach out to other Southeast Asian countries to campaign for the inclusion of the OCR in the biennial meet in Hanoi next year.

OCR served as a gold mine for Filipinos in the previous edition of the Games last year.

Former track star Mervin Guarte and Rochelle Suarez shone as they led the Nationals to a clean sweep of the tournament with six gold medals.

Guarte, who used to compete in the middle distance races for the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association, ruled the men’s five-kilometer run while Suarez delivered in the women’s 100 meters.

Although their chances of making it to the SEA Games are very slim, Agra is still trying his luck by helping the host country form a Vietnamese OCR federation that would supervise the staging of the tourney.

“Right now, we are in the process of forming the Vietnamese federation so that we can help in pushing for the sport in the Southeast Asian Games,” said Agra, a member of the technical working group that is tasked to revise the Philippine Olympic Committee constitution.

Agra said OCR already gained popularity in the region and if ever it would be held in the SEA Games, the Philippines will no longer be the runaway winner.

Right now, we are in the process of forming the Vietnamese federation so that we can help in pushing for the sport in the Southeast Asian Games.

“We are fairly competitive at the Asian level. Southeast Asian countries are the frontrunners of the sport in Asia,” said Agra, whose sport joined triathlon, arnis, skateboarding, squash and billiards as among the sports dropped by the SEA Games organizers in their proposed list.

“This would be uphill now because there is already an initial exclusion of our sport from the proposed list.”

“Fortunately for the sport, our federation really wants OCR to be part of the Games next year.”