Another cheap sports diagnosis

So what’s behind the flunking performance of the Philippine contingent in the recent Southeast Asian Games in Singapore?

Malacañang, as usual,  was quick to send its congratulations after what had looked like a promising start of the Philippines in the 28th edition of the biennial regional meet among Southeast Asian nations. After the final reckoning though, what would surface was the continuing retrogression of poor Philippine sports.

“They targeted 50-55 gold medals and 5th place,” noted seasoned analyst and former national sports statistician Joseph Dumuk. “Just using plain averages, I  had calculated 32 golds and sixth place.”

“PH won 29 golds and placed sixth, far behind Indonesia, “he continued. “Very poor performance in Olympic sports.

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Very poor performance as a whole, indeed.

At least, there was very little noise from jaded top national sports leaders, who had received their share of solid funding from the government.

At least, these officials did not contest what the Inquirer sports staff had noted about “the country’s continuing and alarming decline in the SEA Games since 2005 when it hosted the meet and ruled the competition for the first time.”

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From the top, it would appear that PH had improved, having moved a notch up from its poorest seventh place overall perch in Burma (Myanmar) in 2013.

What had obviously been screened off by hysterical rah-rah groups was the fact that PH fielded a bigger and better funded contingent this year.

Noted Inquirer Sports:” The Filipinos tumbled to a record-low 7th in Burma two years ago when they came up with 29 golds—which they matched this time … But there was a catch. The 2013 delegation totaled 208. This time, the country sent 400-plus athletes.”

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Top national sports officials, led by POC president Peping Cojuangco and PSC chief Richie Garcia obviously were not prepared to submit a damning report card.

It would also appear that, maybe for the first time, they did not go out there for another tired diagnosis of national sporting ills.

It was too bad that, in the end, PH participation in the recent Singapore SEA Games turned into another cheap check-up.

Heres’ what surfaced: PH sports—save for those in boxing and a few disciplines—continued to cling onto a wrong, incompetent system, manned by unqualified developers, led by Cojuangco and Garcia themselves.

Prescription: PH needs an honest-to-goodness wholesale shake-up, no ifs and buts.