IT’S one of the bitter realities brought about by an unseen but vicious enemy.
With the Croatian visas of Manila Chooks TM players Chico Lanete, Mac Tallo, Zach Huang, and Dennis Santos yet to arrive, the squad has pulled out from the 2021 FIBA 3×3 Lipik Challenger.
“There are things that we have no control of, and this is one of them. Since 2019, this is the first time that we had to pull out from a FIBA 3×3 tournament, and the players were really looking forward to it,” Chooks-to-Go owner Ronald Mascariñas said yesterday.
“But the challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic made it hard for us to obtain our delegation’s visas,” he added.
With no Croatian Embassy in the country, the passports of the four were transmitted to the nearest one which is in Jakarta, Indonesia. They were sent to the Croatian Embassy in Jakarta last May 7 but as of last Tuesday, the visas have yet to come back.
The team, which was supposed to do battle in the qualifying draw set to kick off today, had been toughening up in a bubble at the Lucena Convention Center in Quezon.
Manila Chooks TM trainer Aldin Ayo admitted the Filipino cagers are aching to prove their worth.
“The boys have been raring to bounce back after Doha but there are things na hindi natin kontrolado,” Ayo said. “Bawi na lang, that’s all we can do right now.”
The LOC of the Lipik Challenger is still looking for a replacement team as of yesterday.
The FIBA 3×3 has yet to announce when and where the next pro circuit will be.
