Degala, Ramirez seize PNG spotlight

BAGUIO City’s Ysmael Bandiwa (blue) wrestles Marvin Gonzaga of Quezon City on the way to the gold medal. AUGUST DELA CRUZ

DUMAGUETE CITY—Two young athletes stood out in their respective fields even as Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia issued a stern warning against national athletes with so-so performances yesterday in the POC-PSC National Games here.

Fifteen-year-old Dave Degala starred with three golds in wushu’s short weapon, long weapon and bare hands in Group C while Annie Ramirez of University of Santo Tomas ruled the 63-kg class in women’s judo then picked up another gold by beating teammate Jewel de Castro in the open weight finals at the Negros Oriental State University gym.

“I prepared so hard for this because I want to become part of the national team,” said Degala, a national pool member who placed 14th in bare hands in last August’s Asian Championships in Shanghai.

The fourth year high school student at Arellano University got 9.15 points of the possible 10 points in bare hands, scored 9.05 in the short weapon and 8.88 in the long weapon in the form events of wushu at the Acsat Gym.

His singular feat eclipsed the 13 gold medals amassed by Baguio wushu artists.

Meanwhile, Garcia said the PSC is  in the process of reviewing the performances of the national athletes in the games.

“Right now we see national athletes losing to non-national team members when they are expected to win here because they are perceived to be the best we could offer,” said Garcia.

Garcia pointed to national team players in beach volleyball, who didn’t even make it to the men’s semifinals like UST Team 3’s Parley Tupaz, also the national coach, and Arvin Avila, and UST Team 2’s Jason Ramos and Henry Pecana. Another PH team spiker Arnel Amadeo and partner Buesuceso Syason could only finish third.

Garcia said the PSC will stop giving allowances to the national spikers because of the humiliation they suffered.

“It’s okay if they lost in the final, but when you lose in the preliminaries, that’s unacceptable,” said Garcia, adding that their prioritization program will largely be based on the Games’ outcome.