WHEN I woke up Friday morning, the sun was still shining brightly. I was still able to take a shower. Eat a quick breakfast before going to Makati for a meeting and encountered zero traffic.
The night before, I was at SM Bicutan. Parking was very easy and except for the long lines at the supermarket, everything looks near normal. When I got home, there was electricity and I watched television and I am sure that my day will start tomorrow the same way.
Now why am I saying this to start this piece?
We do have a major crisis right now with the threat of the new coronavirus. It’s not just here but all over the world.
Definitely there will be drastic, but hopefully temporary, changes in our everyday lives. Still we enjoy a lot of things and it’s not as if we are under martial law or at war.
And just like in sports, we need to “Understand-Accept-Adjust” to the changing conditions.
The government has put in place certain restrictions which is close to a “lockdown”.
These measures are necessary ones and just like players in a team, we need to follow the instructions given for us to win this ballgame. Of course, it follows that whatever instructions are given they be very clear and specific, then it becomes easier to follow.
But I will also be the first to say that in my more than 40 years in sports, this is the very first time that I saw sports take such a beating against an opponent that we cannot even see.
All major sporting events here and abroad were already canceled or postponed for the next few days.
Name them all: PBA, D-League, UAAP, NCAA, Philippine Superliga, Palarong Pambansa, Batang Pinoy and many more.
A lot more sports fans started realizing the full impact of missing the games.
The NBA also placed its season into a pause after Frenchman Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz was tested positive for COVID-19. It got worse when his teammate Donovan Mitchell also tested positive of the virus.
Most probably, Gobert had unwittingly transferred the coronavirus to Mitchell and to think that Gobert was even kidding about it not knowing that it will backlash on him.
As of now the Tokyo Olympics set later this year is saying is still a “GO” but I believe probabilities are high that in the end, the organizers will decide to cancel or reset the event. As it is, the situation with the virus is not getting better, it is getting worse, and my heart goes out to all the athletes who have dreamed and worked for so long to compete in the Olympics only to see their dreams dashed in the event the Olympiad does not push through.
Just a few days ago, boxers middleweight Eumir Marcial and flyweight Irish Magno made it to the elite cast for the Olympiad after the qualifying event in Amman, Jordan, with Marcial going all the way to the gold medal beating Kazakh Amankul Abilkhan while Magno secured the slot with a victory over Tajikistan’s Sumaiya Qosimova in a boxoff.
The two join early qualifiers Ernest Obiena in men’s pole vault and gymnast Carlos Yulo for a total of four qualifiers so far. But the question really is will they get the chance to compete in Tokyo?
My heart can only bleed for them if that happens as I can only imagine how they are feeling now with all these uncertainties, the blood, sweat and tears just to make it there only to see it for naught if ever, but then hope springs eternal and I will still pray and look forward to seeing them in Tokyo.
In closing, the truth is the world has gone through worst natural and man-made disasters in the past, including two world wars, similar plagues, and in the end, everything came to pass, and that is how it will be in this case, we just need to weather the storm and come out stronger.