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OTHER THAN BOXING, TAEKWONDO

Dayrit sees gold coming from other sports

By Julius Manicad

07/24/2008

Celso Dayrit, former president of the Philippine Olympic Committee and chief of the Philippine Amateur Fencers Association (Pafa) believes the country is ready to win its first Olympic gold medal in Beijing.

Dayrit yesterday said the 2008 Olympics is the toughest in recent memory, especially with the tremendous improvement of athletes from the European countries, United States and host China.

But with the Filipinos’ eagerness to win, a gold medal remains a strong possibility.

“It’s never been easy to predict an Olympic gold medal,” Dayrit said. “Yes, it will be tough, but with the amount of preparation that our athletes did and their willingness to win, (clinching) the gold medal is very possible.”

Among the country’s 15 athletes, Harry Tañamor of boxing, Mary Antoinette Rivero and Tsomlee Go of taekwondo and Miguel Molina of swimming are expected to barge into the medal round while neophytes Christel Simms, Ryan Arabejo and Hidilyn Diaz are just trying to gain valuable experience before joining the 2012 Summer Games in London.

Dayrit, however, did not discount the possibility of having some unheralded athletes like Eric Ang of shooting and Mark Javier of archery sneaking into the medal round, just like what archer Jasmine Figueroa did during the 2004 Athens Olympics.

After placing 56th in the women’s individual ranking with a 72-arrow score of 600, Figueroa defeated ninth seed Natalia Valeeva of Italy in the first round with a 132-130 victory to advance into the round of 32 where she lost to 24th seed Almudena Gallardo of Spain in a razor-thin 150-152 decision, finishing 27th in the tournament and gaining the respect of her opponents.

“She almost made it in 2004, but nobody saw it coming,” Dayrit said, referring to Figueroa’s exciting flirt with destiny. “I think our archer and shooter are capable of pulling an upset. Let’s not count them out, anything is possible.”

Dayrit, who also served as chief of mission to the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympics, also lauded the effort made POC and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) in the athletes’ preparation.

“The support that the POC and the PSC have been showing is very crucial. Knowing that the top sports officials are on their backs, the athletes would go there with a mind focused only on winning,” Dayrit said.

Other than Tañamor, Go, Rivero, Molina, Diaz, Simms, Arabejo, Ang and Javier, other Olympians who are expected to bring pride to the country are Sheila Mae Perez and Ryan Rexel Fabriga of diving, Maristela Torres and Henry Dagmil of athletics and PJ Walsh and Daniel Coakley of swimming. They will be leaving for China on Aug. 5, just in time to make it to the opening ceremonies on August 8.