Ricky’s view of the Asiad and beyond

Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas is ticked off by his own national sports association’s paltry performance in the justconcluded Asian Games.

Vargas and the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines that he heads sent eight fighters to Jakarta. But due to what observers tagged as poor coaching and to ugly and foul judging during the bouts, the simonpures managed to bring home only a silver and two bronzes from the Games.

Why the ring program, always a vaunted prospect to delivering gold in the Asiad and hopefully PH’s first metal of such hue in the Olympics, is off the rails exasperated Vargas, who gath- ered “random thoughts that have been swirling” in his head at the Asiad.

The POC chief composed his musings while waiting to board the flight from Jakarta to Manila. Intended for the Asiad media, Ricky’s review of our stint in the 18th Games in Jakarta and Palembang was shared with this corner by his press relations officer and Abap secretary general Ed Picson.

“I realize that despite the improved performance (in Indonesia), there are so many things that we still need to do,” wrote Vargas.

The “2018 Asian Games was a success for Team Philippines, e.g total medal count improved. Gold count quadrupled, ranking went up from 22nd to 19th (although short of the goal of 15th, but still acceptable),” he continued.

Powered by four gold medals from women athletes, two silvers and 15 bronzes, we moved up three notches from Incheon four years ago.

Vargas said “grassroots development and talent identification have to be ramped up” since... “fresh young faces with boundless energy, fierce determination and gung-ho spirit are coming to the fore. We need to find more of them.”

He also wants a real focus on medal-rich sports such as aquatics and athletics because “neighboring countries are killing us in these arenas.”

Along these lines, he said “we need to look at improving in sports that we can be competitive in: shooting, archery, bowling, etc. Even basketball, which our people love.

Vargas wants the NSAs to “clean up their act” and not allow “bickering and power struggles to weigh down our athletes’ efforts.” The POC president also said: “Cooperation with the Philippine Sports Commission is vital... The relationship must be enhanced and that ‘partnership with the private sector is also essential’ to fund athletes independent of meager government money.

“Sports needs to be brought back to Cabinet-level in government.”

To cap off, Vargas said we need to “teach and play... Olympic sports in schools, improve training facilities and give impetus to the training and development of coaches.”