Asian Youth Games: Mirror of the future

AFTER our 12th place finish of two gold and three silver medals in the recent Asian Youth Games, there’s been a sort of recycled diktat from the Philippine Olympic Committee for a better showing in the 45-nation conclave next time.

In other words, our sports officials have absorbed another jolt from the AYG whose third edition is in Sri Lanka four years hence.

The Games for 14- to 17-year-old athletes have been taken for granted by the sports brass as just another continental tournament we don’t need to consider seriously.

Now, there seems to be a sense of urgency, yet again by the POC and the national sports associations (NSAs) to take stock of their talent pool today and tomorrow for the sporting wars ahead.

“The AYG mirror the future,” says multititled shooter Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla, the country’s chef de mission to the Games’ most recent staging in Nanjing, China, last month.

Padilla’s observation apparently struck a chord, for the nth time. We’ve seen this movie before and it bombed at the box office.

Nevertheless, at its last board meeting, the POC through its president Jose Cojuangco Jr. himself was said to have prodded the NSAs to get dialed in on a program to find and nurture young athletes who will someday spearhead our national teams competing on the world stage.

In fact, Cojuangco has sought Padilla’s help in preparing the PH contingent to the second Youth Olympic Games, also in Nanjing next year.

Padilla’s marching order is to lead the discovery of youth athletes for a mission that Cojuangco is said to be interested in leading personally.

“I’ve seen the youth movement spread its roots in Nanjing,” Padilla reports. “The sustained effort to breed a youth brigade among our neighbors was clearly visible in the medal count dominated by China, South Korea and Japan, in that order.

Padilla notes that the young Turks of the Big Three have enjoyed nonstop nurturing since they were identified. “The proof of the pudding is in the medal harvest,” he said.

The accent on youth was also evident among nations that finished ahead of us in the standings—the likes of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and even upstart Vietnam, according to Padilla.

The POC’s regurgitated edict calls for the NSAs to be a bit more open and cooperative, and to share their data bases of talent for Padilla’s perusal if he were to cherry-pick the young guns for the Youth Olympics.

It will take everything to assemble a credible Olympic contingent, says Padilla, who will also extend his gaze to young Filipino athletes with foreign roots and exposed to the latest training and equipment abroad.

The youth drive includes a closer look at NSAs with aging athletes. Padilla, who’s been a competitive shooter for 38 years, is willing to step aside for young sharpshooters.

“The work should begin at home,” Padilla stressed.

For his two cents’ worth, Joey Romasanta, POC vice president and official spokesperson, says he looks at the youth venture from an assembly-line point of view.

The line starts from the grassroots level, says Romasanta. But when the scouting for young prospects only occurs at the Palarong Pambansa, (National Youth Games) there is a hitch somewhere, he says.

Romasanta credits the Batang Pinoy program for athletes 15 years and younger of the POC and the Philippine Sports Commission for putting ample emphasis on the youth on a countryside setting.