The Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) rubberized track oval. /Photo: Glendale Rosal
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The CCSC track oval is short by 0.88 meters from its exact 400-meter measurement, sports officials revealed on Tuesday, July 16.
Cebu City Sports Commission Chairman John Pages confirmed this in a press conference on Tuesday inside the Cebu City Sports Center.
Pages said that the discrepancy is mainly due to inaccuracies in lane painting.
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Mendel Surveying conducted a re-measurement earlier this week, agreed upon independently by Department of Education (DepEd) and Cebu City authorities.
In contrast to previous reports, Pages debunked several claims. He revealed that the final discrepancy of the CCSC track oval is not 20 meters, 2 meters, or even 1.5 meters.
Instead, the average discrepancy across the 8 lanes is merely 0.88 meters.
This discrepancy, he noted, was not due to the oval itself being non-standard but was a direct result of an error in the lining.
Pages further stated that the lining was short by 0.23 centimeters, which affects the measured distance.
Here are the discrepancies of the CCSC track oval by lane: Lane 1: 1.5 meters; Lanes 2, 3, and 4: 0.79 meters; Lane 5: 0.76 meters; Lane 6: 0.75 meters; Lane 7: 0.73 meters; Lane 8: 0.96 meters.
The average discrepancy was 0.88 meters. When divided by the total length of 400 meters, this equates to 0.22 percent of the entire track oval.
“Unfortunately, the rule as explained by PATAFA states that even if it’s just 1 cm short, even if it’s 399.9 meters, it’s still considered short,” he said.
As a result, Pages said that the 100 meters hurdles record will be honored as it falls within the straight-line measurement. However, records for distances beyond 100 meters will not be part of the Palarong Pambansa records, though athletes will still receive their gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Discrepancy traced to lining
Meanwhile, DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas clarified that the CCSC track oval itself is standard, and the discrepancy is solely due to the lining.
She said the technical specifications were not followed during the lining procedure.
Bringas further clarified that Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) is not involved in the Palarong Pambansa.
She explained that Palaro is governed by its own board. It just happened that members of PATAFA who are also part of the technical team in Palarong Pambansa participate as private individuals, not as representatives of PATAFA.
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“Please let’s not drag PATAFA’s name into this controversy. It’s safe to say that the technical members we have are also members of PATAFA. The records of Palarong Pambansa stay with Palarong Pambansa. They are not records of PATAFA or any other athletic organizations in the country. Whatever records are broken, they are part of Palarong Pambansa,” Bringas said.
Previously, CDN Digital attempted to contact the contractor responsible for the rehabilitation of the track oval, SBD Builders.
However, Shaun Doherty, the representative of SBD Builders, the contractor responsible for the rehabilitation of the CCSC track oval, defended the work by stating that the person who performed the line marking used a manual from World Athletics and was recommended by Patafa consultant Jeannet Obiena
He explained that the third-party marker insisted it was “impossible” for his markings to be “off” since he followed the World Athletics manual and had done dozens of oval track markings for both local and international rubber tracks.
“My company’s scope was to replace the old defective rubber and install the new rubber track in time for Palaro, which we did. The line marking for Palaro was not part of my scope. My scope was for regular straight-line marking,” Doherty said.
The budget for the renovation of the CCSC track oval was over P50 million, according to Acting Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia.