ON THE bleachers of the PhilSports Track Oval in Pasig City, the Ateneo Track and Field Team (ATFT) waited nervously for the University Athletic Association of the Philippines’ (UAAP) Track and Field tournament to begin. The entire arena roared with a mix of anticipation and agitation.
PUWESTO!
The booming voice of the public announcer calls the athletes for the first events. Immediately, the noise of the fans are replaced with a deafening silence.
HANDA!
Fans and other athletes listen intently as the words resonate across the entire oval. The runners plant their feet firmly on the starting blocks and put their heads down for the next signal.
After months of training and the countless hours spent in the gym, the only thing keeping them from scratching and clawing their way to the finish line is the bang of the pistol. They waited, but the signal never came.
Since the first semester of UAAP Season 82, the ATFT have been kept on the starting blocks, waiting for the sound of the starting pistol that never went off. After a year filled with four postponements, pandemic complications, and season cancellations, the ATFT will keep themselves ready for the day they can get back on the track.
Off their marks
Looking back, the ATFT’s long-awaited UAAP Season 82 schedule would not have coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally slated for December 2019, the competition was postponed multiple times before finally being cancelled.
Scheduling conflicts with the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games resulted in the first postponement. With emerging concerns over the PhilSports track oval’s availability and the league’s consideration for the collegiate athletes competing in the SEA Games, the postponement to January 2020 was inevitable.
Following this, a lapse in communication between the organizers of the SEA Games—who held authority over the Philsports complex at the time—and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) caused the second deferment of the season. The former had failed to return the authority over the complex back to the PSC, from whom the UAAP rented the facilities. When the matter was resolved, a third postponement due to the Taal Volcano eruption ensued. With the safety of the athletes at risk, the event was eventually pushed back to February 2020.
Because of the repeated postponements, the uncertainty of the situation became mentally frustrating for the team to keep up with. To make matters worse, the competing team was left in the dark as they were only informed of the postponement days before the competition date. “They were cancelling very close to the event, so sometimes we would be training super hard, then it [UAAP] will be cancelled again,” explained Women’s Team Captain Marga delos Reyes.
Apart from the frustrations brought by the erratic tournament scheduling, the postponements had detrimental effects on the athletes’ physical capabilities. As track and field training programs are designed to allow athletes reach their peak shape in time for their tournament, the postponements made it difficult for the coaches to schedule their training program. “It showed [in our time trials that] we got a bit slower because we were getting so tired, and our bodies were getting confused with the training program,” said De los Reyes.
Despite this challenge, the ATFT coaching staff tried their best to adjust the programs in order for their athletes to peak at the right time. Following the first postponement, the coaching staff hosted an alternative event of competitive trials against collegiate track and field teams.
In February 2020, with no other cause for delay in sight, the team’s excitement over the tournament began building up once again. Although no longer at their peak shape, the ATFT looked forward to simply competing again.
However, a new issue pushed the tournament back a fourth time—the lighting around the track oval had not been renovated in time for the week-long tournament. Without proper lighting around the oval, the evening events would be unplayable. By the time the problem was resolved, the prospect of the tournament pushing through was in peril due to looming news of COVID-19.
Taking into account everyone’s health and safety, the UAAP indefinitely postponed all remaining second semester sports on February 12, 2020, due to concerns over COVID-19. The league eventually cancelled Season 82 altogether on April 7, 2020, after the government extended the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila.
While the ATFT mourned the loss of their tournament, there was also a slight sense of relief because the fate of their season was finally clear for the first time since December 2019.
A stop in their tracks
Unfortunately, the certainty was short-lived as they looked onwards to Season 83. With COVID-19 becoming a pandemic, the ATFT were forced to leave the oval and stay inside their own homes for the foreseeable future.
With this new development, the ATFT coaching staff took the challenge of creating training programs that could adapt to the online setting. Despite the team’s resilience, the lack of the proper facilities and equipment stripped them of their regular training on the oval and replaced it with fitness workouts that simply kept them in shape.
Coach Mick Perez, program director of the ATFT, described how the series of postponements took a drastic toll on the team.”Before the pandemic, we were facing situations of uncertainty, one after another, diba? Postpone, adjust, postpone, adjust, postpone, adjust, without knowing when the tournament would be. That greatly affects morale, greatly affects your psyche,” said Perez.
While the athletes had to juggle both online classes and training when the new school year came, they were able to manage and keep a competitive spirit among themselves as they looked forward to the small chance of competing in Season 84.
Awaiting the pistol
After all the adversity the ATFT had faced in Season 82 along with the added stress caused by the pandemic, the team appeared to have little reason to keep running. However, the athletes still found a way to find a silver lining in their situation.
“Even though it was an online setting, my teammates and I were still very competitive with each other when it comes to working out even if it’s at home. I think that gave me that motivation to still train despite what’s happening,” shared Men’s Team Captain Paolo Laxamana.
On the other hand, De los Reyes believes that training serves as her happy place in a situation that gives only a few reasons to smile. “It became kind of my escape. It also became my way to cope with the things that were happening in the world,” she said.
Following the events of Season 82 and the eventual cancellation of Season 83, UAAP Season 84 remains as uncertain as ever. However, the ATFT continues to prepare for the day when they can finally step foot on the tartan track once more. Until that day comes, they will keep their feet on the starting blocks, awaiting the bang of the starting pistol, and being the first ones to run past the finish line.
