PARIS—There’s an existing blueprint that the Philippine Paralympic Committee (PPC) would love to passionately enforce and make the national team even more competitive in the future.
Of course, funding and facilities for the country’s para athletes are two vital elements for a sure upgrade, but these won’t have any significance at all without a deep pool of talent.
“We must have more athletes and more classifiers. We cannot excel if we cannot find the athletes,’’ said PPC president Michael Barredo at the end of the Team Philippine campaign on Sunday after the curtains fell on the 17th Paralympic Games here.
Southeast Asian neighbors performed a lot better than the Philippines as Thailand brought 79 athletes for 15 out of 22 sports and won six gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze medals.
Malaysia’s 30 bets in eight sports compiled two golds, a silver and a bronze, while Indonesia, which pocketed a gold, seven silvers and five bronze medals, had 35 differently abled athletes in 10 sports.
“We should definitely have a good grassroots program that could produce a steady pool of young athletes, including more women participants,’’ said Barredo.
Close shave
None of the six Filipino athletes reached the medal podium, but all of them went down fighting with swimmer Angel Otom nearly pocketing a bronze on two occasions in the women’s 50-meter backstroke and butterfly S5 finals.
Overall, the Philippines got itself in a position to seize medals four times, including swimmer Ernie Gawilan in the men’s 400-m freestyle S7 medal race and wheelchair racer Jerrold Mangliwan in the men’s 400-m T52 event.
“Our athletes did their best and we’re proud of them. The silver lining here is we learned from the experience and that we should go back to basics,’’ said Barredo.
Apart from filling the basic necessity for athletes in several sports where national para athletes aren’t around, Barredo said tournaments for these sports should be a regular thing to keep talent identification flowing. INQ