Sports Eye
A black eye at SEA Games
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
IN our October 25 issue, I wrote about the feud between our national cycling leaders Mike Romero and Tagaytay City Mayor Bambol Tolentino, each claiming to be the legitimate president of the national cycling body, PhilCycling. Romero’s group is being recognized by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) but not accredited by the world governing cycling body Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), while Tolentino’s faction is recognized by UCI but not licensed by POC to lead the national cycling federation.
The confusion created is similar to the BAP-SBP row in 2003-2005 that was eventually resolved after three years of bickering and mudslinging.
The current row between the two groups has a very negative impact on our cyclists in the ongoing 25th Southeast Asia Games in Vientiane, Laos. Our riders’ woes have turned from bad to worst.
Twelve out of the 13 riders sent by the POC headed by Jose “Pepeng” Cojuangco were booted out by the UCI led by Pat McQuaid as president. Only Malasiqui-raised rider Marites Bitbit was allowed to participate because she holds a UCI license and riding on the camps of Romero and Tolentino. McQuaid denied her teammates. I don’t know why.
(Note: Tolentino’s group, whose cyclists are all UCI-licensed, did not send a delegation because it anticipated that the powerful POC would not accept them as part of the Philippine team and would just end up being sent home before the games open).
The decision of McQuaid angered Cojunagco and Go Teng Kok, the athletics president and POC’s trouble-shooter. Go, with the blessing of Cojuangco and the endorsement of the SEA Games Federation Council, tried to appeal the case twice but McQuaid won’t budge and told Go that Tolentino’s group is the only authentic body of Philippine national cycling.
As of this writing, December 10, the POC decided on a damn if you do, damn if you don’t move and ordered the withdrawal of Bitbit in all events, including her forte, the mountain bike cross country and road races. This was intended as a sign of protest, but I believe it just added insult to injury. The POC move could boomerang and jeopardize our country’s next participation in other overseas cycling races sanctioned by the UCI.
It’s a very unfortunate situation for the 30-year old Bitbit, who won a gold in the 2005 Manila meet and another gold in the 2007 Thailand meet in the road battle.
There are four Pangasinan riders in the national squad to Laos, namely: Alfie Catalan of San Manuel, Mark Julius Bonzo of Sual and Pitaki Boyz adopted rider Irish Valenzuela of Mangaldan. Like Bitbit, Catalan was also a gold medalist in 2005 and 2007 all in velodrome (track) races. But now, it’s really unfortunate they cannot strut their wares and bring some honors anew for our country and the province.
I’m not familiar with the UCI charter and I don’t know whether it has the authority to interfere in the domestic affairs concerning cycling of a nation. I find the incident both funny and unbelievable because UCI, run mostly by Australians, Europeans and Americans, is an independent sports entity following the democratic system. By interfering in the row among our local cycling groups, these Caucasians seem to be running the store like dictators. But I still give them the benefit of the doubt. There could be a compelling reason, perhaps there was something that the POC did that prompted the UCI decision. If that was the case, the public should know.
And to our sports leaders, they should take the weight off their feet and solve their differences amicably if they truly love our country. Huwag na sanang pataasan ng ihi like what they’re doing now. Look what happened to our cyclists and our national team. Nakakahiya. We sent a delegation using Juan dela Cruz’s money with no result, all because of ego. It should not happen. It was really a big black eye for our national team.
Abangan ang susunod na kabanata there will likely be some fireworks.
