Close to 500 athletes bound for SEAG

The country is likely to send less than 500 athletes to this year’s Hanoi Southeast Asian Games after the Philippine Olympic Committee’s technical commission gave its nod to 379 athletes and 105 more on conditional basis.

Bowling’s Steve Hontiveros, chairman of POC technical commission, said his 12-man committee unanimously agreed to recommend the list to the general assembly meeting July 30.

The 105 "conditional athletes" are reportedly good as approved since the bulk of them are coming from medal-rich disciplines like athletics, cycling and swimming among others.

"This number is definitely bigger than the RP delegations in the last two SEAG editions because we’re not just looking at Hanoi but also the 2005 SEAG here in Manila," said Hontiveros.

This meant that the RP delegation to the biennial meet set Dec. 5-13 might reach 479, definitely bigger than the national team sent to Brunei (258) in 1999 and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (359) two years back.

Events included in the conditional list are men’s (12) and women’s (12) basketball, athletics (30), men’s football (20), men’s traditional boat race (25), men’s and women’s cycling (4) and swimming (2).

According to Hontiveros, basketball has yet to submit its final lineup, possibly after the PBA Asian Invitational.

Athletics is set to submit its own list right after the Asian Athletics Association Championships in Manila this September.

Swimming is submitting its roster in August while requesting for two more slots while football has been given until the end of August. — Joey Villar