PSC to launch sports institute
Brengle cuts erratic Williams down to size
The Philippine Sports Commission rolls out the revived Philippine Sports Institute on Jan. 16 at the PhilSports Arena, finally bringing to realization the vision of having a science-based grassroots program and support for elite athletes.
President Duterte has been invited to serve as keynote speaker during the launch, which will also have athletes and coaches in attendance together with representatives from the PSI’s partners League of Governors, Senate, House of Representatives, national sports associations, Department of Education, DILG and LGUs, and Korean Institute of Sports Science, among others.
“I think this is one of the key missing links for our sports development. We’ll be able to give more to elite athletes and at the same time, the PSI will be the driving force of our grassroots programs,” PSI national training director Marc Velasco said during yesterday’s presscon at the PSC Athletes’ Dining Hall.
The Institute was initiated by former PSC chairman Philip Juico in the 1990s and revived by Butch Ramirez during his first term as chief of the sports agency a decade later.
For this third “version,” Velasco said it enjoys the full backing of President Duterte and the current PSC board headed by Ramirez.
The PSC has earmarked P25million per month for the PSI’s operations and programs and another P50-million for the purchase of new equipment in the areas of sports science, sports medicine, nutrition and training.
“For us to excel in sports, everything has to be planned. You have to understand other countries spend billions of dollars to support a specific athlete and for us to expect something in return we have to give our athletes support,” said Velasco, who previously worked for the Hong Kong Sports Institute.
“We can’t expect the athletes to win gold medal if we couldn’t even give them basic support. Right now I think the board, chairman Ramirez, sees that there’s an opportunity to excel in sports by putting up the sports institute,” he added.
While the PSC is preparing the PSI’s rollout, sports- minded legislators and other government officials are pushing to institutionalize the PSI.
Velasco, who was joined by PSC commissioners Charles Maxey and Celia Kiram, PSI deputy director Henry Daut, and PSC executive director Carlo Abarquez in the presscon, welcomed this to ensure that the PSI will continue to exist even with changes in administration.
Under the PSI’s grassroots programs, youngsters and potential athletes will be identified, tested, and trained to form part of the “Elite Sports Program” for possible inclusion in the national pool.
The PSI chief said they’re expecting the fruits of the program to be fully reaped beyond 2020.
Serena Williams’ Australian Open preparation suffered a jolt with fellow American Madison Brengle stunning the world number two, 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-4, in the second round of the Auckland Classic on Wednesday.
Playing her first tournament since her semifinal loss at the US Open last September, Serena was left to rue the 88 unforced errors she made in the contest against an opponent 70 rungs lower in the WTA rankings.
“I really think I played – I’m trying to think of a word that’s not obscene – but that’s how I played,” she said after the loss less than two weeks before the year’s first grand slam at Melbourne Park.
“Eighty-eight unforced errors is too much, just way too many. It’s a lot. I can’t expect to win hitting that many errors,” said the 35-year-old who had constant trouble with her ball toss in the swirling wind.
Brengle was trailing 1-4 before she staged a brilliant comeback to run away with the first set against the 22- time grand slam singles champion who had triumphed, 6-0, 6-1, in their only previous meeting in 2015.
Serena was a set and 4-3 down when she made a comeback of her own to clinch the tiebreaker and force the decider.
The third set went on serve until the 10th game when Brengle held two match points, only for Serena to fight off both and slump in relief when she hit a crosscourt forehand to get back to deuce.
Brengle strode confidently across court, secured her third match point and stared in disbelief as Serena double-faulted to hand her the biggest victory of her career.
“I’ve never returned like that in my life. It’s a little frustrating, especially since I worked so hard in the off-season, but at least the conditions won’t be like this in Melbourne,” Serena said.
“She obviously did a much better job than I did. I really abhorred the conditions. I don’t think I’ve ever hit 88 errors in my career. I could google that and that’s probably accurate. So there’s no need to look back on such a crappy game.”