The 2013 Southeast Asian Games officially open two days from now. But certain events have jump-started the regional tournament in Myanmar. The Philippines, so far, has won two silver medals through wushu.
The Philippines is sending 210 athletes and 81 officials to this year's SEA Games. With a budget of Php33M, the Philippine delegation is competing for 180 gold medals out of the 460 golds available. With the policy of POC and PSC of sending only gold medal hopefuls, it is surprising to note that a lot of the Filipino athletes do not have a ghost of a chance of winning gold. Athletes from canoe-kayak, table tennis, women's football, badminton, equestrian, golf, karatedo, aquatics, pencat silat, sepak takraw, shooting and muay are not expected to bring home any gold. Athletics remain the goldmine for the country with an expected haul of 6 gold medals. Eric Cray is the runner expected to carry the load for Philippine athletics. Boxing and billiards can contribute 4 gold medals each. For billiards, world champions Rubilen Amit, Dennis Orcullo and Bata Reyes lead the charge. Boxing has Barriga, Gabuco and Saludar to carry the fight. Cycling can bring home 3 gold medals. Chess, missing the services of Wesley So, and taekwondo too can bring home 3 gold medals each. Judo, wrestling and rowing can contribute 2 golds each. Men's basketball, sailing, archery and weightlifting can contribute one gold each. Women's basketball can spring a surprise to improve its silver medal finish two years ago and finally earn a gold. Dragon boat can easily give the country 17 medals with at least 6 of them gold. But sports officials have not decided not to send the world champion dragon boat team to the biennial event.
Over-all, the Philippines can expect to win 44-46 gold medals to finish 7th among 11 countries. With the deteriorating performance of Filipino athletes in SEA Games, and expectations for this year much less, I can see yet another sports disaster for the country. There will be yet another call for POC President Peping Cojuangco and PSC Chairman Richie Garcia to resign after the 27th SEA Games. And as usual, nothing much will come out of the demand to have the two top sports officials removed.
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