PATAFA sees better showing for Pinoys in SEAG
THE Philippine Athletics and Track and Field Association (PATAFA), headed by Terry Capistrano, sees tough sailing in the coming 2023 Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia.
But he also believes the Filipino athletes would perfom better than what they did during the recent SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
“I really don’t like forecasts but people would want to hear that. Sa nakalipas na SEA Games sa Hanoi, we had five gold medals. We would like to go way beyond the five gold medals,” said Capistrano at the close of the ICTSI-Philippine Athletics Championships held at the Ilagan Sports Complex.
Capistrano, who watched the final two days of the prestigious competition organized by the PATAFA in cooperation with the Ilagan City government, ICTSI and CEL Logistics, said Vietnam and Thailand are expected to provide stiff competition to the country.
“It’s going to get harder and harder because of Vietnam and Thailand. I’ve been watching their performances, monitoring their athletes and the way their countries are providing support for their athletes. Medyo matindi talaga itong dalawang ito ngayon,” explained Capistrano.
“But having said that, matindi rin naman tayo. We’re making sure that our preparations will be as good as anybody’s preparations, if not better. That’s what we’re aspiring for. We definitely want to go way beyond five gold medals. I will be disappointed, it’s a little bit disappointing, if we cannot go beyond the five gold medals. But as I’ve said, I don’t want to burden the athletes and the coaches with high expectations,” he added.
Asked about the recent National Open, Capistrano called it a big succesd.
“I think we all have the same conclusion that this has been a great success.Thank you to the people of Ilagan, Isabela, the organizing committees, and of course the PATAFA with so many number of people handling the event. Ang daming nagpunta dito, with more or less six to seven countries as far as Iraq, and our Southeast Asian neighbors Indonesia, Malaysia. They were quite rewarded with a number of gold medals.”
“Also, a couple of these countries really raised the bar as far as National Open is concerned. As you can see, especially Iraq, Vietnam and Thailand and the rest of the other countries. So, assessment-wise, the one word is successful.”
Capistrano also said the Ilagan meet will be the last criteria to be used in determining the members of the national team.
“We actually already had two performance trials in the last few months. We had one in January in Davao. We want to make sure other people in Mindanao and the Visayas can have a chance to participate in the performance styles. The second one was in February at the ULTRA.”
“But even before that, we were already monitoring these athletes in the weekly relays. For example, I think, If I’m not mistaken, it started out in September and ended in November. It was a series of about 12 or 15 weekends every Sunday competition. So that was also part of the preparation and build up for not only the SEA Games, but for the other competitions like the Asian Championships in Bangkok and the Asian Games in Hangzhou.”
