Monday, August 07, 2006

The secret behind archery’s ‘secret success’

By Recah Trinidad
Inquirer
THIS IS A continuation of the amusing success story of a national archer who, after being excluded from the Philippine team, went to Malaysia on her own and eventually emerged the top performer for the national team.

For the record, national archery officials claimed they did nothing officially wrong.

“Ms Amaya Paz was not included in the list of participants whose expenses were shouldered by the PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) due to her inability to meet some of the criteria ... like participation in the 2006 Philippine Olympic Festival National Target Archery Championship held at the Subic Bay Freeport June 12-24, 2006,” explained Dr. Lenora Fe S. Brawner, president of the National Archery Association of the Philippines.

In fact, explained Brawner in a letter to the Inquirer, they were “definitely very happy” about the victory of the young lady archer who garnered three gold medals, three silver medals at the recently concluded 2nd Asian Grand Prix at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

* * *

For the record, the father of the young archer, Jaime “JP” Paz, did not complain with this reporter. The sketchy details on the amusing adventure of twenty-year-old Amaya Paz, a scholar at the University of the Philippines, were gathered through a conversation with a Batangueño friend who wondered why there had been nothing about the big victory of the archer in the papers.

For the record, JP Paz came to us only on the day the column appeared to clarify that he and his family never begrudged the NAAP for having excluded Amaya from the list of participants in the KL Grand Prix.

The archer’s father said they were not seeking any reimbursement (of the expenses), adding they have also spent for other foreign stints of Amaya, which obviously helped hone her into a world-class archer.

* * *

Amaya, explained her father, has requested that her name not be dragged into the developing “secret success” story, which has drawn the amusement of many sports fans.

For the record, the PSC acted immediately and offered to reimburse Amaya’s expenses for her Malaysian stint upon reading the details of her triumph in that said column.

Amaya had to be excluded from team members financed by the PSC after she suffered a freak accident (she tripped on a chair at home) last April 29 that resulted into her right hand being put in a cast.

For the record, she wrote a letter to the PSC on July 5, thru the NAAP president, to “request inclusion in the list of athletes to be sent by the PSC to Malaysia.”

In that letter, Amaya explained she had been cleared by her doctor (Rodrigo Angelo Ong) for immediate competition.

“It’s been more than a month since I started regular training. I even go beyond my regular training hours. I believe that I am now in my competition form and I am very confident that, if given the chance, I will be able to represent our country well in Malaysia,” Amaya explained in her letter.

* * *

For the record, the NAAP, without having to claim it knew its athletes best, did nothing officially wrong. Amaya, to repeat, failed to meet some of the criteria.

Of course, there’s also nothing wrong if people have started to wonder why an athlete, who had no place in the national delegation, was quickly included in the RP team delegation once the need arose.

For the record, there was no evident effort to keep Amaya’s sweet success a secret.

Explained the NAAP head: “Mr Clyde Mariano of the Bulletin Today was send (sic) by the PSC to cover the Asian Archery Grand Prix and all results were published in the Bulletin, Tempo and some tabloid newspapers.”

* * *

Fine. But they’ve also started asking if Brawner was “definitely very happy” about Amaya’s success.

Here’s why: In explaining their failure to fully publicize the Paz triumph, Brawner also said that, “By airing their complaints directly to you, the father of Ms Paz had pre-empted, at least partly, our intentions to have some media publicity on her three gold medals.”

For the record, Amaya Paz completed her victories in Malaysia at the end of the Grand Prix July 27. That column on her “secret success” came out Aug. 2.

For the record, there were a good five days from the time Amaya Paz had completed her victories in Malaysia to the time the critical column appeared.

Nothing wrong with the belated acknowledgement; although this would also show that the NAAP has missed the bulls-eye, again.

Here’s hoping Amaya Paz gets a timely award for patriotic persistence

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