SEAG is for every Filipino to watch

With more than 40 venues scattered over different parts of the country, this year’s 23rd Southeast Asian Games promises to be a giant showcase of the region’s finest athletes — for the millions of Filipinos to see.

It will only be the third time that the Philippines will host the SEA Games. But it will be the first time that action will be held in as many venues.

When the Philippines first hosted the event in 1981 and last in 1991, action was confined mostly in Metro Manila.

The historic Rizal Memorial Sports Complex served as the main hub during the first two stagings of the SEA Games in the country with just a small number of sports played in nearby cities and municipalities.

It will be entirely different this time.

With Manila still serving as main hub, action, however, will go deep down in cities like Bacolod and Cebu, which have been named satellite venues. There are a few others like Laguna, Rizal, Tagaytay, Pampanga and Subic.

There’ll be 441 gold medals to be disputed in 41 sports disciplines of the 11-nation biennial event set Nov. 27-Dec. 5 and the Philippines, being the host, is bent on making a good run at the overall crown.

The opening ceremony, both festive and austere, is set Nov. 27 at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta where close to 10,000 athletes and officials from the 11-member countries will converge.

A massive crowd, particularly young students and volunteers, is expected to turn the area into a sea of humanity. As planned, President Arroyo will declare the Games open.

The closing ceremony on Dec. 5 will also be held at the Quirino Grandstand. Similar ceremonies but of lesser magnitude have also been prepared in Cebu, the Queen City of the South, and Bacolod, known as the City of Smiles.

The centerpiece event of athletics will be contested at the Rizal Memorial track oval, the sight of countless battles won by legendary track stars like Lydia de Vega-Mercado and Elma Muros.

The track oval is undergoing a P21 million renovation and sports officials are confident that things will be over and done by the second week of October or more than a month before the start of competition.

Aside from athletics, other events on tap at the RMSC are baseball, table tennis, lawn tennis and wrestling. Gymnastics is tentatively set at the Rizal Coliseum.

Arnis will be staged at the Emilio Aguinaldo College in Ermita, badminton at Philsports, women’s basketball at the Blue Eagle Gym in Loyola, billiards and snooker at the Makati Coliseum, bodybuilding at the GSIS Teatro in Pasay, bowling at Pearl Plaza in Parañaque, cycling at Amoranto velodrome in Quezon City with criterium races set on Roxas Blvd;

Equestrian at Alabang Country Club Polo Field, fencing at the Pasig Sports Center, women’s football tentatively at Marikina Sports Center, women’s golf at Manila Golf, Muay Thai at GSIS gym in Pasay, rowing at La Mesa Dam, shooting at the PSC-PNSA Range in Fort Bonifacio (air pistol, rifle and practical) and PNSA Clay Target Range in Muntinlupa (trap and skeet);

Softball at the Rosario Sports Arena in Pasig, squash at Makati Sports Club, taekwondo at Cuneta Astrodome, traditional boat race also at La Mesa Dam and wushu also at the Emilio Aguinaldo College.

Going outside of the metropolis are aquatics (swimming, diving and water polo) at Trace College in Los Baños, Laguna, men’s golf at the Country Club in Canlubang, Laguna, men’s basketball at the Ynares Center in Antipolo, chess at the Tagaytay City Convention Center, cycling’s road races also in Tagaytay, lawn bowls and petanque at the Hidden Valley; and archery (Remy baseball field), canoe-kayak (Malawaan fishing area), sailing (Subic Yacht Club), and triathlon (Boardwalk) all in Subic.

Sports disciplines to be hosted by Cebu are cycling at the Ramon Durano Sports Complex in Danao, dancesport at the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug, judo and karatedo at the Mandaue Coliseum, pencak silat at the Cebu Coliseum and sepak takraw at the University of San Carlos Gym.

In Bacolod, boxing will definitely be the biggest draw at the La Salle Coliseum, and the province’s No. 1 spectator sport of football (men’s) at the Panaad Sports Complex. Indoor volleyball will be staged at the West Negros College, while beach volleyball is set at the University of St. La Salle, and lastly, weightlifting at the Bacolod Convention Center.

This year’s SEA Games is certainly for everyone to see.