MANILA, Philippines – When Lydia de Vega-Mercado hung up her running sneakers in 1995 after a stellar career highlighted by back-to-back century dash romps in the Asian Games, it was the last the Philippines had seen of the sprint queen.

Since then, no one has been able to fill in her big shoes and deliver the mints for the country in athletics’ centerpiece 100m events internationally.

She came home to attend the wake and burial of her father and mentor, Francisco “Tatang” de Vega, who succumbed to lingering illness last Dec. 26, her 46th birthday. She leaves for Singapore again on Sunday.

Asked about the possibility of coaching national athletes again, she said: “Of course, if given the chance. I already worked as a consultant before in 2005 during our preparations for the SEA Games only that my service was not renewed after.”

Diay was the darling of Philippine athletics in the 1980s, winning a pair of gold medals in the Asian Games and the Asian Amateur Athletics Association, in addition to Asiad and Asian continental records and no less than 20 SEA Games and ASEAN Championships titles.

So how come 15 years have passed and there’s still no sign of another Diay in our midst?

“It’s actually due to a number of factors – program, facilities, funding,” De Vega-Mercado offered during yesterday’s SCOOP sa Kamayan forum in Manila.

“We have a lot of good athletes, especially in the provinces but the problem is, we don’t have (regular) competitions unlike in our time. What happens is, our present program gets started but just doesn’t have the proper follow-through to ensure the athletes’ continuous development.

“I think we should revise our program to make it long-range, 3-5 years, because from there, we can see the progress of the athletes,” she said.

Hand-in-hand with the program, De Vega-Mercado added, is the facilities for the athletes’ training.

“Where will our athletes train? There’s the Rizal Memorial, which I heard will be converted into a soccer field, and the PhilSports. How many schools in Manila are also using these facilities? Is that enough? How can we develop athletes if our facilities are limited?”

Funding also comes into play. “Do we have the funds and will that be enough?”

She feels if the Philippines maintain a long-term program with regular competitions and provide better facilities and sufficient funding, then it will most likely bring forth a possible successor. “We should look into all these factors,” she said.

De Vega-Mercado, a former consultant for the Philippine Sports Commission, has been based in Singapore the last four years, working as teacher/ coach to elementary students there.

Olmin Leyba, Philippine Star