RP’s five-gold projection attainable — Cojuangco

Unlike Philippine Sports Commission chair Butch Ramirez, Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco Jr. yesterday refused to make any prediction on the country’s gold medal chances in the coming Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

But the POC chief remained optimistic that the national athletes would deliver the five gold medals predicted by Ramirez recently after the Asiad Task Force finalized the list of 229 athletes competing in 31 sports in the Games slated Dec. 1-15.

"It’s going to be hard making a prediction because we don’t know our opponents," said Cojuangco in yesterday’s POC executive committee meeting in Makati City. "But I’m hoping that we can reach that number."

He was referring to Ramirez’s forecast of five gold medals, which could come from top gold medal prospects wushu, billiards, taekwondo, bowling and boxing.

The Philippines won three gold medals in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea through the efforts of Paeng Nepomuceno and RJ Bautista in bowling, Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski in equestrian and Antonio Lining and Francisco "Django" Bustamante in billiards.

"Our preparation is going well," said Cojuangco, who also heads the national equestrian association.

But aside from being ready, the Filipino athletes would also need luck in the draws and a strong start in their respective disciplines in a bid to get the country’s bid going.

"We’ll just make sure our athletes would get all the things they would need particularly concerning their nutrition and physical fitness," said Cojuangco.

The country is sending a strong 315-man delegation that included 229 athletes set to leave in several batches starting on Nov. 26.

Although the level of competition in the Asiad is far too high than the Southeast Asian Games, the Filipinos’ successful campaign in the SEAG where they reigned supreme before hometown crowd should serve them in good stead in the Doha meet. — Joey Villar