THE three national juniors records in athletics that were surpassed in the recent 61st Palarong Pambansa in Ilocos Sur would remain as they are—national records.
The reason? None from the national federation of track and field was contracted to supervise competitions at the Palaro. This also goes with the other sports played in the annual multisport program handled by the Department of Education (DepEd).
“We cannot consider the records because we need to verify the results. But we don’t have any representative during the competition,” Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) Secretary-General Renato Unso said.
Sprinter Veruel Verdadero, hurdler Eliza Cuyom and javelin thrower Ann Katherine Quitoy all surpassed national juniors records during the weeklong meet at the President Elpidio Quirino Stadium in Bantay.
Calabarzon’s Verdadero erased the 38-year-old junior record in the 100 meters with his time of 10.55 seconds. Julio Bayaban’s 10.69 seconds he set in 1979 stood as one of the longest unbroken standards in Philippine athletics.
Cuyom, also from the Southern Tagalog team, shattered Julie Rose Forbes’s 15 seconds she set in the 2000 National Open with 14.50 seconds in the 100-meter girls’ hurdles.
Western Visayas’s Quitoy, meanwhile, threw the spear to 45.72 meters, smashing Rosie Villarito’s 44.54 meters she set in the 1998 National Open.
Unso also noted that the DepEd has not embraced the latest technology in sports, including an electronic timing device and a wind gauge for athletics.
Instead, the DepEd has for so long utilizes physical-education teachers who manually record results of all sports in the Palaro program. In athletics, races are hand-timed, thus making room for coefficient for errors.
Unso said Patafa coaches witnessed the athletics competitions to scout for athletes.
“But that’s all, only to scout. They have no business with the officiating,” Unso said.
Education Undersecretary Tonisito Umali, who handles the Palaro for the DepEd, said they will loon into the loopholes.
“We will look on that,” he said.
Forty new records were set in the Ilocos Sur Palaro—19 in swimming, 16 in athletics and nine in archery.
The records, however, were booked in the K to 12 era, where athletes 18 years old and younger are still allowed to participate.