IT was their turn at the bat and our para athletes delivered at the 2023 Asian Para Games in China that followed the Asian Games.

We finished ninth overall, better than in 2018 though with similar 10 gold medals on top of the four silvers and five bronzes they brought home.

Hard to imagine we won more golds than silver and bronze medals combined, but then eight golds alone come from our inspired para chess team, plus a gold each in swimming and wheelchair racing for that 10 total.

Rookie chess player Darry Bernardo, in the Asiad that is, and Menandro Redor led the charge with three golds each while Atty. Cheyzer Mendoza got the other two gold medals in chess.

I remember meeting these players when I did a Media Relations Training for our para athletes a few months ago with Patricia Hizon, and Atty. Cheyzer was saying she was not comfortable being interviewed and I told her there was no reason to be, what with her accomplishments.

And now, she proved it again.

Our two other golden winners were veterans Ernie Gawilan in swimming, he is a two-time paralympian already and wheelchair racer Jerrold Mangliwan who staged a dramatic come from behind win in his event, unlike Ernie who dominated the 400m swim event.

Nine years ago in 2014, our para athletes went home gold-less, with just five silvers and five bronzzes and look at them now, it shows how far they have gone.

When I did that training with our para athletes, I saw how upbeat they were, more confident about themselves.

Then when I attended the pre ASEAN Para Games send-off party before they left fir Cambodia, I was getting goosebumps , feeling the energy of the group.

For the record, they brought home 34 golds plus 33 silver and 50 bronze medals from that event.

Now I want to talk about incentives they will receive, just in time for a merry Christmas, presently, para athletes get half of what regular athletes receive as incentives.

For this Asian Para Games, the gold medal winners will get P1M each, silver medals are worth 500,000, while a bronze medal winner receives 200,000.

Considering para athletes hardly got any attention at all in the past, what they receive now as incentives can be described as very substantial already.

But the question raised by some, why not give them the same as regular athletes?

After all they also train as hard as the able bodied ones do, I would even say it is even harder for para athletes to train physically because if their condition.

Just imagine how our blind triathletes train in swimming, biking, and running. I know this because I previously worked with Tom Carrasco gratis et amore on par triathlon.

The glory they bring is equal, at least it should be, but in reality, the achievements of regular athletes get more recognized, consequently they get more incentives.

But is that right?

I will not argue the case but rather express my own sentiment, I believe para athletes should get more than what they are getting now in terms of cash incentives.

Definitely, getting only half of what regular athletes get for me is not right.

It should be increased, maybe not immediately equal but it should be increased regularly that over a period of time, it will be near equal if not equal. to what regular athletes get.

I do recognize that regular athletes have their own sentinents about this matter but as I said, I am not here to argue but to simply say my piece.

And I already did.

Again, I offer my congratulations to all our para athletes for a job well done, to our chess team, Ernie, and Jerrold in particular.

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Congratulations, too, to the Philippines Burlington-Bestank basketball team, headed by coach Johny Tam, for finishing fifth with three wins and two losses in the 10th Zheng Chenggong Cup international invitational men’s basketball championship in Nanan City, China recenly.

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