The Other Achievers

I want to mention the other Philippine achievers in this year Asiad, especially those who fought long and hard to bring gold that only comes in trickles.

EJ Obiena The Filipino Olympian nabbed the Philippines’ first gold in the 19th Asian Games over the weekend at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium. Obiena captured the pole vault gold with his record leap of 5.75 meters in his initial attempts then cleared 5.90 meters ... raising the bar even higher.

Annie Ramirez in jiu-jitsu took another gold when she defeated Kazakhstan 2-0 in the finals. Meggie Ochoa, also of jiu-jitsu dominated the 48 kg category making another gold.. Jeanna Kaila Napolis settled for bronze in the 52 kg division.

In this era of West Philippine Sea and confidential funds, "kung sino ang kumukontra sa confidential funds ... ay kalaban ng bayan" - the three golds and the golds won by Team Gilas are enough to warm the cockles of our hearts and make us forget the juvenile catfights of our elected leaders - and the obvious scheming and dirty maneuvers that make us think where is the Philippines headed to?