SAN FERNANDO -- One would probably have to dig a little deeper to fully appreciate a modest Philippine haul in the 30th Southeast Asian Games lawn bowls competition, where one gold, three silvers and two bronzes do not really tell the full story behind the delegates' successes.
The tournament's final day on Wednesday at the Friendship Gate in Mabalacat, Pampanga painted a scene that epitomized how a second-place result behind overall champion Malaysia proved to be a total win for the Filipinos. While the Malaysian contingent rightfully celebrated a four-gold, two-bronze result with a chorus of cheers and bottles of water poured on top of each others' heads on one end of the lawn, the Filipinos quietly gave each other pats on the back and congratulatory messages on the other end for raking in those six medals with very little time to train.
Training was scarce given the Philippine team's situation with over a month left before the SEA Games commenced: there still was no venue to hold any competition, which meant it had to scramble for time and resources to build the lawn from scratch themselves.
"We're happy. We feel like winners because we were able to prepare the venue in 6 weeks -- it meant that we didn't have an advantage because we had no training heading into the SEA Games," team captain Ainee Knight said in Filipino.
It was a failed land deal between the Malabon Property Landholdings, Inc. and the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC) which put the lawn bowlers in a bind. Reynaldo Samia, the national team coach, told ESPN5.com that the former's selling price -- "around P11-million pesos" -- proved to be too much for the latter, forcing the sport's top heads to look elsewhere to feature the sport.
An initiative by the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) after a couple more bumps along the way became the team's last bastion of hope, though it would later learn that it would have to do some more lifting and carrying on their own -- literally -- to prevent lawn bowls from being scrapped from competition.
"Malabon Property and PHISGOC were not able to land a deal, so the CDC let us borrow some land. If you see those weeds over there," Knight said, pointing to undeveloped patches of land also laden with dry grass and mud, "this was what it looked like before the whole event."
"CDC helped us get some land near SM Clark, but the company who was supposed to lend us land withdrew so the corporation gave us this area near Friendship Gate," coach Samia added.
Once they were finally able to secure the land from, Samia and the rest of the contingent made use of the finances from PHISGOC and picked up the tools to build the setting -- a rectangular-shaped rink with leveled grass, or "greens" inside the rubber walls that served as barriers around the shape -- alongside their contractors, who had no clue what they were constructing in the first place.
"I told the athletes that this would serve as our training: using rakes and shovels, ironing out the surface, putting a rubber wall around the lawn. I told them that we can't rely on anyone else to be able to play lawn ball," said Samia.
"We got heavy equipment and helped each other even out the surface because this was all full of untrimmed grass and weeds. Our contractor got hollow blocks and measured the whole surface and we did the rest," he added. "They just planted the grass so there are still patches of uneven grass. Would have looked better if it all grew evenly."
Thankfully, all the laboring somehow worked out in the end.
It wasn't, by all means, a performance that could be categorized as splendid for the Philippines, which came tantalizingly close to a first-place finish a couple of times. The country's lone gold of the competition came in the men's pairs division on Dec. 2, where Rodel Labayo and Angelo Morales drubbed Thailand 19-14 in the final.
Two more silvers -- courtesy of Knight, Nancy Toyco and Asuncion Bruce after the trio dropped a 16-13 decision to Singapore in the final, and of Marisa Baronda, Sharon Hauters, Hazel Hagonoy and Rosita Bradborn in a 17-6 loss in the women's fours finals to Malaysia -- helped pad the country's medal tally in the four-day event, while Nenita Tabiano and Vilma Greenlees (women's pairs); and Curte Robert Guarin, Emmanuel Protacio, Leoncio Carreon and Ronald Lising (men's fours) carved out bronzes to help the Philippines score six podium finishes in the tourney.
"We weren't able to improve from our 2017 SEA Games performance. We got a bit unlucky and our opponents had a lot of momentum and some luck, too," rued Samia.
But considering the challenges they had gone through before actually playing a live game in the regional meet, they'll gladly take the results in stride.
Both moral and tangible victories still don't solve their venue woes, though, which means that there are still battles off the lawn they'd have to tackle after the celebrations end.
While most athletes from other sports could rely on sturdy training grounds built to mold them into champions, an already decorated lawn bowls team -- led by Knight, a three-time SEAG medalist (bronze in 2007 and 2017, silver this year) and many-time international finalist; and bolstered by world champions Hagonoy, Brandborn and Greenlees, along with other regular fixtures in high-level tournaments abroad -- is still shelling out money from the players' own pockets individually to be able to be accommodated in Angeles Sports Club.
"It's better there, and we know the surface of the grounds there. That's where we really practice. We all pay P3,000 monthly individually," Knight said. "If we don't pay, we can't train. We'd be left behind internationally.
"Other countries really hire expat coaches and they'd ask us 'How come you guys play so well and yet your venues aren't that good? If we just have good venues and good surfaces, we will really take care of the rest."
Right now, the team can only dream of having their self-created venue in the Friendship Gate be as good as the one they train in over at Angeles.
"I hope they can add toilets here, some structure to shade us from the elements," said Knight. "Our federation officials will take care of it next time. Maybe even the mayor of this city could help us, too."
"The venues we play on are really owned privately," lamented Samia. "We just wanna have a venue that we can call our own home."
On the bright side, the Philippine lawn bowls' luminaries are thankful that they can at least look forward to shaping and developing this bare yet self-owned area to their own liking.
"That's all in the past. This is the future. I hope this area gets developed," said Knight.
"This venue is here for us now. The Filipino lawn bowlers are happy because they now have their own venue," a relieved Samia said. "It feels like we won gold, too."