Wanted: more support to sports events that Filipinos have a chance
On Wednesday, Apr. 21, 2021, Dauis native Vanessa Sarno finished on top of the podium after she captured medals as she competed in the 71-kgs. category in the distaff side of the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Uzbekistan.
The 17-year-old Sarno lifted a total of 229kgs in the women’s 71kg final to win the gold, followed by Turkmenistan’s Gulnabat Kadyrova (223kgs) and Kazakhstan’s Yekaterina Bykova (213 kgs).
It was Sarno’s golden finish in the clean and jerk category that made her top the total lifts, after comfortably clearing the 120, 124, and 128kg lifts in all her three attempts.
This brings us to our topic this week, which is providing ample support to our athletes with high potential to win gold.
Look at Sarno; she is now competing at the Asian level where most of the competitors are already competing at the world level.
The true test for Sarno is later this year in Vietnam as she competes in the Southeast Asian Games and perhaps in the Asian Games in China next year.
Sarno seems to be the heir apparent to Hidelyn Diaz, the latter just qualified for the August 2021 Tokyo Olympics delayed due to the pandemic. Of course, we still have Tagbilaran’s Ellen Rose Perez and other bets that could shine in weightlifting.
This reality tells us that we should focus on the sports where the Filipinos can excel and put our money and where we can reap gold medals.
Look at Kenya, that country as at least 10 Olympic gold medals, correct me if I am wrong.
How about the Philippines, how many Olympic gold medals do we have? Zero.
If Hidelyn Diaz narrowly missed the Olympic gold medal In Rio, she seems to be our best chance to latch on to a gold medal after nearly a century of competing in the Olympics.
Other than Hidelyn, we also have world champion Carlos Yulo, who may win the Philippines’ first Olympic gold medal.
Singapore, a country with 3 million people already has an Olympic gold medal in swimming.
How about us?
We have silvers and bronzes but no gold medals in the Olympics because we don’t give emphasis on the sports where we excel.
We give some focus on boxing and taekwondo but that’s it.
We can excel in football and now weightlifting but we are not really into those sports.
It is time for us to really focus on the sports that matter.
Basketball mania is ok, but we should not put all our resources in basketball. In a country where there is a poverty of resources, we need to ensure that we are able to maximize what we have and bet on sports where we have a fighting chance.