Homecourt advantage

It’s a fact that at any sports, the host enjoys homecourt advantage be it the Olympics, Asian Games,Sea Games or the local regional competitions like the Palarong Pambansa. Well, if you’re the host, you  enjoy a lot of privileges like one does not need to travel thus they are well-rested. They could field a big number of participants as they will save on travel expenses. They could also add sports that will be on their advantage like the indigenous sports only they understand or know how to play.  If you have 10 events, only known to you, that’s 30 medals for both men and women. The host could also scrap events where they are weak. For instance, the host country who have no athletes in triathlon , weightlifting, boxing or swimming,  could always limit the events. In 2019, the Philippines made a lot of medals in arnis and dancesport. Then there's that problem with scheduling.  In the 2017 Kuala Lumpur Sea Games, Fil-Am Eric Gray’s events were scheduled about thirty minutes from each other.  Yes he won the 400m hurdles but lost steam in 100m.  The sprint should have been scheduled the following day.  Basketball teams were not given access to gyms for practice.  On one occasion, a bus driver carrying the National Basketball team, drove the players to a monstrous traffic Jam and  barely reach the  venue a few minutes before tip off, denying the players to a warm up. When the smoke cleared, in the recently- concluded Hanoi Games, Vietnam has won the overall  title relegating the Philippines to fourth place.  Vietnam reigned supreme with 205 gold medals, Thailand was second with 93 golds, Indonesia third with 69 gold  medals. The Philippines collected 52 golds, a far cry from the 149  it won while hosting the Games in 2019.

Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce

on Kingston, Jamaica was just too fast when she ruled the 200m of the Prefontaine Classic at Eugene, Oregon last week. Pryce 35, a two-time Olympian clocked 22:41 to relegate American Brittany Brown to second in 22:74 Anthonique Strachan took third in 22:76.  Pryce who’s height is 5 feet and weighs 115 pounds is also known as  Pocket Rocket.  Born in poverty she crawled her way to track running, clocking 11:57 seconds at 16 years old.  She won the 100m gold in Beijing (10:78) and London (16:75) and added another gold  in the 4x100m relay.

NOTE:  Happy Birthday to a lovely McDonalds manager Mae Lovely Orate.  Wishing you more birthdays to come.