by Moses Billacura
Coming from a country with a population of just 7.3 million, Serbia has finally produced a tennis superstar in Novak Djokovic.
Novak, the world’s newly-ranked No.1 tennis player, recently lifted the most sought after Wimbledon Cup after beating Rafa Nadal of Spain in the men’s singles final.
Such victory was very sweet because his parents and siblings were at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club’s center court to witness the biggest win of his life.
You see, Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world (it started in 1877) and considered by many as the most prestigious and so tennis players would really work very hard to get the chance of qualifying.
Novak’s recent win will for sure inspire his countrymen and others who love his type of play to be like him, a true champion and fine example to others being the Best Sportsman awardee of the Olympic Committee of Serbia and for receiving the highest decoration of the Serbian Orthrodox Church, the Order of St. Sava.
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Let us shift this time to a country with a population of 1.3 billion, the People’s Republic of China.
Li Na’s win in the French Open last month has brought so much joy to China that even broadcast journalists were in tears delivering the news of the win.
For many years, players from the West have dominated the tournament, but finally and for the first time, an Asian has won a Grand Slam event, thus, making Li Na the newest sports personality favorite in China.
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I was listening to the Wimbledon tennis commentator who said that Novak’s parents invested everything to keep the Serbian in tennis development. And it’s no wonder that Novak’s mom was shedding tears of joy to see her eldest son so successful in a chosen profession. Just imagine the sacrifices they have made like by making ends meet and raising funds for their son’s training which is not cheap.
Compare that to Li Na whose development is being sponsored by the government of China. All she has to do is strictly follow the sports program designed for her by the Sports Ministry. And with her win, China has proven again to the world that its program is effective.
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I can still remember that the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) has established links with the Chinese Sports Ministry and so we have Chinese coaches training our national athletes.
But how come we still have a hard time beating our rivals in the Southeast Asian Games?
It’s true that China is a sports superpower which leads me to the next question, why don’t we learn from them? If you can recall, the Beijing Olympics in 2008 was a testament to their being such a superpower.
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I think our national sports officials should renew their appreciation for sports development. What happens actually is that many of our sports association heads just want to stay in power, receive funding from the PSC, get the chance to travel abroad and that’s it.
There was a time when our sports leaders spent their own money for sports but unfortunately, those glory days are gone.
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Happy birthday to long-time friends Loureen Princess Balugo, Daniel Macaraeg, Beau Genesis Baslao, Roxy Alcordo.
