Gilas PH and sports’ have-nots

BAGUIO CITY—The earth moved under my feet Tuesday night.

A mild temblor rolled through this mountaintop city after Gilas Pilipinas registered a jolt of its own—winning over Qatar in the 2013 Fiba Asian Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

The key conquest by the flagship team of a basketball-crazed nation sparked so much shaking in Filipino homes glued to television sets that it was hardly felt here when the seismic plates nudged each other after the game.

It’s been reported that the wealthy Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas plows P100 million a year into the game and to keep a national squad of PBA millionaires in peak form. The SBP spent P70 million more to host the Fiba Asia now on its last legs.

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As I write this, Gilas was among the semifinalists and striving to be one of three continental teams to book a ticket to the Fiba World Cup in Spain next year.

“Why a team that’s only worth one medal in international competitions enjoys such a bounty is beyond me,” said Baguio old-timer Nars Padilla.

Manong Nars definitely belongs to a rare breed not so mesmerized by Gilas. He was the camp director of the Philippine Sports Commission Training Center at Teachers’ Camp here when it started as the Gintong Alay facility in the early 1980s. Back then, sports officials had a soft spot for track and field, a discipline that offers medals in at least 36 individual events.

The national basketball team and its bottomless money pit also came to mind when I visited with the athletes at Teachers’ Camp.

To talk with some of them, my buddy had to rev up his turbo-charged, 4×4 SUV to take me downtown from his impressive chalet built on top of one of the last remaining rainforests here.

The athletes came out of their quarters as we arrived before 4 p.m. It was an overcast and drizzly day; yet as expected, the tracksters were on their standard two-hour afternoon grind on the camp oval tended with care by Nestor Encomienda, still here from the Gintong Alay days.

Priority and national pool athletes I talked with included distance runner and London Olympian Rene Herrera; heptathlon specialist Narcisa Atienza; long jumpers Harry Dagmil and Catherine Santos; and shot putter Eliezer Sunang.

Elsewhere in camp were javelin throwers Danilo Fresnido and Arniel Ferreira; hammer thrower Loralie Sermona; long jumper Benigno Marayag; marathoners Eduardo Buenavista and Eric Panique; and 4×400-meter runners Julius Nierras, Edgardo Alejan, June Rey Bano and Archand Bagsit.

Also there were camp director Juanito Smith, coaches Willie Occidental and Mario Castro, the 1985 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist in the 10,000 meters; and retired police chief inspector Erlinda Lavandia, a four-time Southeast Asian Games javelin gold medalist, now resident PSC consultant here.

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The athletes and coaches I mingled with spoke of the lack of equipment while they train for the SEA Games from Dec. 11 to 23. At least one of the runners said he has to shell out his own money for vitamins.

More weights, a leg press, lower hurdles for women runners, and a squat rack that won’t buckle down and hurt someone while propping a 300-kilogram weight were requested last March but still have to arrive.

I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles when you belong to a less-fancied national sports association and your leader is on the bad side of sports officials.