José María Daza Sánchez
By José María Daza Sánchez
The administrative instability that the department of Chocó has suffered in recent periods is reflected in the results of all order. In the case of the sports issue, during this quadrennium we had the head of the governorship on seven occasions, either one in charge or the one elected and reinstated and the same number of directors of the Sports Institute, Indecho.
This scheme does not allow continuity in the generation and application of policies that allow attention to our sacrificed athletes. Young people who, with great sacrifice, try to prepare to compete representing the department, but the lack of interest from the administrations leads them to leave Chocó for other departments or simply fail in the attempt here.
In addition to the petty mentality of some characters or leaders who believe that investing in sports means losing money and then when it comes to allocating resources, they do not come out of their pockets and that there was the possibility of allocating a reasonable amount for all sports activities. preparation, competition for qualifiers and being able to participate in said games are refused, without having any criteria to define the amount to invest.
Initially, expenses of thirteen billion pesos were requested and supported and they ended up setting only 4.3 billion. Explanations (?) must be given by the officials responsible for this catastrophe. Although it is not customary to give accounts in this order.
Absolute frustration of the athletes given the great effort they make. But we cannot leave sports leaders aside, those who make up the boards of clubs and leagues. They have dedicated themselves to waiting for “daddy government” to finance their activities, with some exceptions, and then they unload themselves on the administrations and their management is almost non-existent and some seek to improve their situation.
The result of the participation of our Chocoan athletes in this XXII version of the national games was two bronze medals in the taekwondo and boxing categories and with it, the last position in the classification of the departments that competed, which there were 27.
We will now prepare, with more figures and details, a report related to this topic, because we even have difficulties in obtaining information related to said participation, since due to the limitation of resources, only one journalist was present. We still do not know of any report in this regard.
In a radio interview we spoke with Francisco Tulio Palomeque, better known as Pirry, a para-athlete who with much sacrifice and effort has achieved several triumphs in the form of powerlifting, which is a discipline that, although similar, maintains a certain distance from weightlifting, or weight lifting.
He pointed out to us that they have not yet been informed how much the sporting economic recognition will be for the possible victories they obtain, since this week the Paranational Games begin in the same cities of the coffee region where the national games were held.
Furthermore, he informed us that the conditions of uniforms and equipment are terrible. “Some athletes do not have tennis shoes to compete in, nor complete clothing…they even have problems with diapers…”
Palomeque, let us remember, was not registered for participation on an occasion prior to the National Games due to negligence on the part of a sports administration and could not participate, despite having obtained different triumphs, such as a silver medal in 2008 in the Paranational Games. in Cali; silver in Cartagena in 2019; and internationally, bronze in 2015 in Toronto, Canada; Lima, Peru, Pan American champion, with a lifting record of 195 kilograms; runner-up in Santiago de Chile; runner-up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2019 and fourth (4th) place in Kazakhstan, among other achievements. But this has not earned it recognition and support from local administrations.
So let’s hope that the new departmental administration does pay attention to our athletes and takes into account that Chocó has great potential that has been lost due to administrative ineptitude.