Kudos to PSC for Para Games
I HAVE to give credit where credit is due.
And not because I work now here at the Philippine Sports Commission( PSC) that I say the agency certainly deserves credit for its decision to revive the National Paragames that just concluded last week at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (RMSC).
I have been in sports writing for a long time, nearing five decades in just a few years’ time, and I have covered similar events in the late 70s.
Believe me it is a far cry from how it was conducted this time, much much better, with our para athletes enjoying a lot of things that back in the past, they could only dream of
For this year’s ParaGames, there were 903 para athletes and 291 officials who participated coming from 62 Local Government Units (LGUs), cities and municipalities, and private clubs from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Events contested were athletics, table tennis, chess, wheelchair basketball, boccia, badminton, powerlifting, swimming and archery, the latter included an event for blind archers, first time ever played here, and swimming.
Venues were the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and Philsports, and all the para athletes and officials were provided hotel accommodations for the entire duration of the event.
Citystate Tower Hotel and LYF Hotel in Manila were used while in Pasig, Privato Hotel, Hop Inn Ortigas, Go Hotels in Mandaluyong, and JinJiang Hotel were tapped, on top of this, each para athlete received food subsidy plus free transport from hotels to venues provded by the PSC.
And LYF Hotel, to its credit, even hosted a karaoke night at its Skygarden Skylounge for all the athletes billeted in the hotel.
This is what I mean that our para athletes are in a much better situation now compared to the past, and what was also good, there were other kind hearted individuals and private sector sponsors who joined hands with PSC, with Senators Bong Go and Pia Cayetano on top of the list together with Chooks To Go who provided meals to the volunteers, Summit Water, and Aice Ice Cream.
This kind of partnership is what is needed to further sustain the gains made in the recent past in uplifting para sports in the country.
I went around the playing venues at RMSC and even interviewed a couple of young swimmers, Ric Daniel Pasadilla , with a prosthetic right leg under the knee, and Mary Hannah Brianea Diesto, with a delayed mental development case, both 13 year olds, with Ric, from Talisay in Negros, winning 3 gold medals while Hannah, from Iloilo, took home 2 golds and one silver.
Ric dreams of competing in the Paralympics, Hannah is just happy playing but will always like to come first, and the ParaGames becomes the instrument for them, for Ric to dream, for Hannah to enjoy life.
And I extend my appreciation to all the parents and guardians, coaches, team officials, and technical officials, the volunteers, and the PSC staffers involved with the event, for their patience and efforts to make the event the success that it was.
Of course I need to recognize that there were delegations who were more successful in terms of winning medals in the different events,the smiles on the faces of the para athletes and team officials were obvious proof of the pride they had for their performance, something that I feel makes all the effort of those involved, worth it.
So for the record, the top ten performing teams were Pasig, which dominated the event with 45 golds plus 32 silvers abdc31 bronzes for a total of 108 medals, way ahead of the runner up team, the Philippine
National School for the Blind- Pasay, with its 20-17-13 medal haul totalling 50, while in third place was Iloilo wth a 20-6-13 collection
Rounding out the top 5 were NTP PHILSPADA, 18-8-3, and Baguio PDAO, 17-12-10.
Sixth to 10th places were occupied by , Davao City, 17-9-6, Pangasinan, 13-23-10, Zamboanga City PWD, 12-10-6, Cebu City Sports, 12-6-9, and Quezon City, 9-11-5.
Next year, we will be seeing some of these athletes competing in the ASEAN ParaGames happening after the SEA Games in Thailand.
Congratulations to all nobody loses in this kind of event as far as I am concerned.
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