Venues still under repair, renovation

With less than three months to go before the SEA Games, it’s turning out to be a race against time as far as the renovations of a handful sports venues are concerned.

Aside from the track oval at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, there are at least nine other venues, mostly from within Metro Manila, that are either under repair or renovation.

The track oval is in the middle of a P21 million facelift, and work, according to those concerned, should be over by the second week of October or just a month before the Games set Nov. 27-Dec. 5.

Other sports venues being worked on are Philsports multi-purpose hall for badminton, RMSC baseball stadium, Amoranto Velodrome for track races in cycling, portion of the La Mesa Dam for rowing and traditional boat race, Rosario Sports Arena for softball, Makati Sports Club for squash, Ninoy Aquino Stadium for table tennis, and the Trace College in Los Baños, Laguna for aquatic sports like swimming, diving and water polo.

Three other sports — women’s football, gymnastics and wrestling — have yet to be assigned their official venues for the SEA Games which the country is hosting only for the third time since 1981 and 1991.

The fact that these venues are still under renovation with exactly 91 days before the Games, and that there are sports with still no official venues has forced Michael Keon, the training director of the national athletes, to air some apprehension.

The former director of the Project Gintong Alay said the delay in this critical area could lessen the Filipinos’ hometown advantage. He said the delay in the importation of the equipment for the athletes is another thing.

"And it (hometown advantage) means familiarization with equipment to be used in the competition and familiarization with the venues. So if you (still) have problems with the venues, then you have a problem with familiarization," he said.

"The sooner we allocate the venues, the sooner the athletes can go there and train and be familiar with them, and thereby have the hometown advantage," added Keon.

Keon’s observation did not sit well with officials of the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee or Philsoc, with Robert Aventajado, chairman of the Philippine Olympic Committee and a member of the Philsoc board of trustees, taking the cudgels.

Aventajado branded Keon’s statements as "unfair" and added that "the true homecourt advantage is the local crowd that will go to the venues during the sports meet to cheer Filipino athletes.... (and) our chances of winning the overall crown strongly depend on our athletes’ performance and the amount of public support we get."

"I just wanted some people to move a little faster," countered Keon.

Gymnastics is set at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum but is in need of a training and warm-up area. The nearby badminton hall could provide the answer but only if wrestling agrees to move to another venue, most probably the refurbished San Andres Sports Complex.

Women’s football might be moved from Marikina City to the Philsports in Pasig after the former failed to meet the standard length of the field. The problem could be addressed if Marikina officials agree to dismantle the asphalt bicycle lane adjacent to the field and allow for the pushing of the length of the field.