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SENATOR Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Thursday urged sports leaders
to come up with a program that will boost the country’s campaign
in the 2012 London Olympics.
Concerned about the Philippines’ failure to
get more slots in the coming Beijing Games, Escudero said sports
officials should instead focus on the London Summer Games.
“We’ve held sports summits before but we did
not follow the results to the letter,” Escudero said. “So, maybe
a select field of sports leaders could gather and discuss what
action and remedies are needed to prop up our chances in their
respective disciplines, maybe in 2012 if nothing would come in
Beijing. We have to be realistic, but not to the point of taking our
faith away from our bets in Beijing.”
Escudero stressed the need to invest on the
youth and anchor the Philippines’ Olympic gold medal drive on
today’s potential upstarts.
“It saddens sports fans like me to learn about
the unsuccessful bids by our boxers in their recent campaign to earn
Olympic berths in the qualifying in Kazakhstan. That was our last
chance, and we lost our grasp on it,” Escudero said.
“In every failure comes a new opportunity.
Maybe, we can use those defeats to rearrange programs, fine-tune
everything, start and see again if they will work the next time,”
he added.
Those who qualified in Beijing were swimmers
Miguel Molina, Daniel Coakley, James Walsh, Ryan Arabejo, and
Cristel Simms; divers Shiela Mae Perez and Rexel Ryan Fabriga; tae
kwon do jins Mary Antoinette Rivero and Tsomlee Go; archer Mark
Javier; and boxer Harry Tanamor.
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