Lydia de Vega – Mercado would have read the story of the bare-footed track runner from Ifugao. The experience of the young tracker was widely publicized after she suffered bruised soles and other foot injuries in last years’ regional sports competition.

Who is Lydia de Vega – Mercado? She’s the best sprint runner the country ever had.  She was given the moniker as Asia’s “Queen of Women’s Tracks” for recording the fastest sprint in South East Asia, and harvesting piles of gold medals for the country in Asian competitions.

Only the oldies and sports writers would remember her.  Appearing before a recent sport journalist’s forum in Manila, Lydia indicated her wish to come home and help shape the country’s sports world for future regional competitions.  Presently she is involved in a coaching job in Thailand.

Her message to the sports public is quite simple and timely as the Department of Education is ready to embark in the annual sports competitions among students in both the public and private schools.  From these sports intramurals and competitions by town or district, division, provincial, regional and the national palaro potential athletes are recruited to represent the country.

Wishing for officials of the national sports commission to listen, Lydia says the process of scouting for talents should be seriously considered hand in hand with training.  She observed that training of athletes is done only before competitions.

Lydia lamented that while prospective athletes are willing to undergo serious training; their potentials are not developed to the fullest in the absence of training equipment and facilities.

Accordingly the known sprint queen sees the present track and field sector in this manner: no recruits, no facilities, no training, no good athletes equals no gold, silver nor bronze medals for the country.

Her thoughts of winning in sports competitions and for the country to regain her past glory are basically practical and doable. The dismal number of medals accumulated in foreign sportsfests should be acknowledged and placed before the doorsteps of a well-meaning sports commission. This should awaken top echelon officials to provide the needed support for runners to perform their best in the tracks.

In track and field, there are limited modern tracks available for serious training. Two popular ones are those at the University of Life (ULTRA) in Pasig and at the Teachers Camp in Baguio City. ULTRA was a creation of Imelda while that in Teachers Camp was of Michael keon, nephew of former President Marcos. Laid in these fields are two-layered “mat tracks” made out of glued shredded vehicular tires.

Sports development and physical fitness programs during Marcos time was taken significantly as the deposed president was considered a sports buff.  The country then was in serious contention with her Asian neighbors and harvesting medals that makes Filipinos proud. After Marcos, the joke around town was that the favorite sport in Malacanang was Mahjong or Nintendo’s Super Mario and the number of gold medals started declining to zilch or zero today.

Perhaps Lydia is shopping for a job in her home country and is making this kind of noise.  If this is how Lydia can get the attention that the track and field sector deserves, why not? She is an icon in her field and an idol too. -(hp)