Nat’l team cogs test mettle of qualifiers

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Some 500 members of the national team—from Efren “Bata” Reyes to Gab Moreno—try to justify their inclusion in the Philippine squad in the PSC-POC Philippine National Games Finals which opened here Monday.

They will compete against 2,000 athletes who made it to the national finals from the qualifiers held in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The week-long multievent games will be held at Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center and other venues in the province.

“Being part of the national team is not a right but a privilege, and athletes should also strive to be at their best,” said Philippine Sports Commission Chair Richie Garcia, who opened the Games along with local government officials.

World pool champions Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante lead the national athletes, including Youth Olympic gold medalist Gab Moreno, Davis Cuppers Johnny Arcilla and Patrick John Tierro, and Southeast Asian Games champions Marestella Torres and Christopher Ulboc.

Joining Garcia in declaring the Games open were Gov. Amado Espino, PSC Commissioner Jolly Gomez and POC executive board member Romeo Magat.

Head of PSC secretariat lawyer Jay Alano said only the top three performers of the regional qualifying meets made it to the PNG Finals. It’s the first time in five PNG editions that the participants got through regional qualifying stages.

National sports associations are tasked to evaluate their rosters based on the performances of their athletes.

Chess and boxing started their preliminaries ahead of the opening but the 18 other sports will begin today.

Track and field events fire off at NRSCC with 13 gold medals at stake. The women’s and girls 10,000-meter run will kick off the competition, followed by men’s shot-put, women’s high jump and women’s long jump.