Not the Medal
Athleticism, competition, rivalries for different countries and Athletes. Dedication, pride, worth, success for medals and Standing. The Southeast Asian Games for the year 2013 opened in the Naypyidaw, Myanmar and our nation competed and placed seventh with 101 medals with 29 Gold, 34 Silver and 38 Bronze medals.
The high-flying performances of the Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia made them the Top 5 countries of the 11-day successive sporting competition of the year. With 29 gold out of 461 gold medals for Seventh Place, is this a good record for the Philippines in the SEA Games?
As we analyze the statistics, records and history, we can say that this is not a good rank for our country. The last time the Philippines won first place on the SEA Games was in 2005 when we hosted the event and we bagged 113 gold, 84 silver, and 94 bronze medals. In 1979, our country won 24 gold medals, lower than this year’s, yet we still managed to rank Fourth Place in the Jakarta SEA Games.
Sports analysis said that this is the worst ever campaign of our country in the SEA Games, having placed seventh which is the lowest ever in our history in joining the games. In defense of the Philippine Team for SEA Games, there are several obstacles that triggered their group to have the victory that they want. Some people say that they lack the support from government especially when it comes to the fund of the team. But after all of this, our athletes still did their best to beat other countries and wave our flag for being the 7th Place of the Games over the 11 Southeast Asian countries that competed.
However, it is not the number of medals that counts, it was the effort of our athletes that gave their worth and time to prepare and battle for the top of the standings. This may not be the worst rank of the Philippines but as long as they represented our country with pride and honor, we can say that the victory is in our hands right now.
Medals are just a representation of this competition but our Athletes that go to these 2013 SEA Games is the pride of the Filipino people all over the globe.
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