POC, PSC lock arms

The Asian Youth Games in Bahrain and the Philippine Youth Games or Batang Pinoy in General Santos City ended with a bang last Friday, a coincidental finish that marked a joint push for grassroots development by POC and PSC.

POC president Bambol Tolentino flew to Bahrain to boost the morale of the Philippine delegation that surpassed the country’s medal harvest in two previous Asian Youth editions. He proposed the staging of the event every two years instead of four and said the new schedule will reel off after the next conclave in 2029.

PSC chairman Patrick Gregorio attended the opening of this year’s Batang Pinoy with Manny Pacquiao and Olympic weightlifting gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz. He called it “providential” that the Asian Youth Games and Batang Pinoy were held almost at the same time, pointing out the congruent vision of both competitions.

While POC is focused on the Asian Youth Games with an eye to identify future elite athletes, PSC looks after Batang Pinoy with the goal of digging deeper into younger age groups to create a broad mass base. The typical age range for the Asian Youth Games is 14 to 17 for most sports. In Batang Pinoy, competition is split into 12 to 13, 14 to 15 and 16 to 17 age brackets.

Batang Pinoy gathered over 20,000 athletes, 4,000 coaches and 1,200 officials from 188 LGUs all over the country in General Santos City, making it the biggest of 15 editions since the first event in 1999. “It was bigger than the Olympics and Asian Games,” said Gregorio.

In Bahrain, 4,074 athletes competed in 26 sports. In the first Asian Youth Games in Singapore in 2009, the Philippines took home only a silver and bronze. In the second edition in Nanjing in 2013, the haul was two golds and three silvers. The collection was up to seven golds, seven silvers and 10 bronzes this year.