Are you engaged in any kind of sports? Does age matter?
Everyone should engage in sports towards health and fitness, more importantly, for children and young people to develop good habits they can continue into adulthood.
With television and social media capturing people of all ages and turning them into couch potatoes, the thrusts to get up and move is extremely vital to prevent obesity and its resulting consequence of pathological overweight issues.
Being engaged in some sports can improve mental health, as well as physical health, with exercise being helpful for people with depression and a range of other mental health issues because it releases good chemicals into our brains.
Sports also makes people feel better about their bodies, which can make them happier; it reduces the risks of eating disorders and crash dieting, as people make more sensible, healthy changes in their lifestyle.
Sports is particularly important for the youth in their physical and mental growth. In the formation of character, sports inculcates good values, advancing career growth.
In addition, sports has become a good means of earning a living. The person who does well in his sporting field earns for himself a good name, some fame, and even wealth — especially when be becomes a hero after a lot of hard physical work.
Sports has great potential in offering career opportunities. It is a even a mandatory subject in the curriculum of the Department of Education.
To highlight the country’s interest in sports, the Philippines was admitted to the Southeast Asian Games Federation in 1977. After a gap of 14 years, we are now playing host to the 2019 SEA Games, now ongoing until Dec. 11 in various venues in Luzon, involving participants from 11 countries in Southeast Asia.
Founded as the South East Asian Peninsular Games (SEAP Games) on 22 May 1958, delegates from the countries in the Southeast Asian Peninsula attending the Asian Games in Tokyo, Japan had a meeting and agreed to establish a sports organisation. The SEAP Games was conceptualised by Luang Sukhum Nayaoradit, then vice-president of the Thailand Olympic Committee.
The proposed rationale was that a regional sports event will help promote cooperation, understanding, and good relations among countries in the Southeast Asian region.Six countries, Burma (now Myanmar), Kampuchea (now Cambodia), Laos, Malaya (now Malaysia), Thailand, and Vietnam were the founding members. They agreed to hold the Games biennially in June 1959, and SEAP Games Federation Committee was formed thereafter.
The first SEAP Games were held in Bangkok from 12—17 December 1959, comprising more than 527 athletes and officials from Thailand, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, South Vietnam, and Laos participating in 12 sports.
East Timor was admitted at the 22nd SEA Games in Vietnam in 2003.
Locally, Dumaguete has been awarded this year’s Sports Tourism Organizer (Government).
Indeed , the City is not only a City of Gentle People, but a City of Sports-Minded People as well, as can be seen in the widespread support for sporting events like triathlons, marathons, fun runs.
As the City looks forward to hosting the 2020 ASEAN School Games, perhaps it is never too late for each of us, young and old, to take up a sport, and strive to be good at it. So get up and move it! Brisk walk, jog, dribble, box, dance, scuba dive, climb mountains, sail, surf, skateboard, lift weights, swim, bike, run! Just do it!
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Author’s email: [email protected]
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