I MISSED by one gold medal the minimum prediction I made about the performance of our para athletes in the just-concluded 12th ASEAN Para Games in Cambodia.

Last year in Indonesia, they collected 28 golds together with 30 silvers and 46 bronzes, this year, after seeing how high the morale of our athletes was at the send-off ceremony, I predicted they will be good for at least 35 golds, they delivered 34 to go with 33 silver and 50 bronze medals to finish 5th out of the 11 participating countries.

Way ahead of the pack was Indonesia with 159 gold medals, followed by Thailand, 126, Vietnam, 66, and Malaysia with 50.

That for me is a big improvement for our team though it still shows other ASEAN countries are doing more for their para athletes.

My personal congratulations to our para athletes, especially to chess players Darry Bernardo who had 6 gold medals , teammate Cheyzer Crystal Mendoza who had 5, and swimming sensation Angel Otom with 4, they alone accounted for almost half of our gold medal tally.

This is what I mean that Philippine sports is very much alive and well, when even our para athletes are doing well and I see them being sent to a lot of international competitions, kudos to the Philippine Sports Commission( PSC) for the increased support to these athletes.

Other secondary sports too are doing well in terns of being active, three time world champion and a winner of 10 gold medals in the SEA Games Rubilen Amit is staging the second season of her Amit Cup this weekend at the Superbowl in Makati Square Cinema with 76 paid entries, the biggest number so far in all the past legs of the first season.

And I intend to be there to watch the finals tonight and see if inaugural champion Leslie Gaite from Arellano University will do a back to back performance.

I hope so because she promised to treat me for lunch or dinner after I helped her get recognized by the city governnent of Mandaluyong for her past achievement government.

SEAG soft tennis double gold medalist and my new friend Bien Zoleta informed me that we are also sending a soft tennis team to Incheon, Korea to compete in the NH Bank of Korea Cup, composed mostly of the SEAG team plus three newcomers.

The tournament is even stronger than the field in the SEAG as non ASEAN countries are also enetered like China, Chibese-Taipei, Korea, Japan, India, Poland, and the Czech Republic, others aside from us are Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia.

This is part of the tean’s preparation for the forthcoming Asian Games in China.I wish Bien and the team the best of luck, Bien in particular said she will be happy already if she reaches the semis in the mixed doubles.

From my old friend Nino Sinco, now a national team coach in archery handling the youth team, I learned we will be sending our best young archers to compete in the world youth archery championships in Limerick in Ireland by end of this month.

This was preceded by our senior archers’ very good performance in Singapore that saw 7 national records re-set, as I wrote last year, archery is on the upswing and our archers are proving me right.

Again this shows a resurgence in Philippibe sports and I am paying more attention to the non-mainstream sports at that.

By the way, I will be a facilitator in the 1st HoopCon PH, a gathering of Filipino basketball enthusiasts set on June 18 at the Hobby Stadium in Dona Hemady in Quezon City, organized by serious basketball memorabilia collector Dr. Rico Mesina.

There will be booths and celebrity guests like PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial, Atoy Co, Vergel Meneses, Gil Cortez, Chino Trinidad, and Joe Lipa who will be signing his new book for buyers.

There will be Q&A’s with some of the guests which I will help facilitate, see you guys there.

LOOSE CHANGE — Happy birthday to Liza Andaya, wife of People’s Tonight sports editor Ed Andaya. Liza celebrates her birthday with family and friends on June 11. By Lito Cinco

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