Believe it: RP can win 109-171 golds

A high of 171 and a low of 109.

For the first time since the countdown began, a prediction has been made regarding the number of gold medals the Philippines is hoping to win in this year’s SEA Games.

Harry Angping, who heads the technical committee of the Philippine Olympic Committee, made the prediction during yesterday’s SCOOP sa Kamayan Forum.

"This assessment is an honest to goodness assessment," said Angping, the president of the RP softball association who’s also part of the RP chef de mission task force.

Angping said the heads of the different national sports associations made the assessment before the POC executive committee last Wednesday.

Reliable or not, the prediction means that the Philippines will be in the thick of the fight for the overall crown when it hosts the biennial event from Nov. 27 to Dec. 5.

The high of 171 gold medals out of the possible 441 at stake in 41 sports is more than triple of the 49 gold medals the Philippines won two years ago in Vietnam. Even low of 109, if achieved, would surpass the 91 gold medals the Philippines won when it last hosted the SEA Games in 1991 and placed a close second to Indonesia’s 92.

"We in the technical committee are in no position not to believe (the assessment of the NSA heads)," said Angping.

Angping said boxing, bowling and billiards were the only sports that did not make any prediction on their medal chances.

The softball president, however, did not give mediamen a breakdown of the medal prediction, saying it was upon the insistence of the NSA heads themselves.

But Angping said athletics, the country’s biggest source of medals in the SEA Games, was on top of the list with a projected high of 15 and a low of 12.

Taekwondo and shooting followed with identical 12-8 predictions, cycling at 10-6 and karatedo at 9-6. Muay Thai predicted a high of 3 and a low of 2, and canoe-kayak at 4-3.