Unless a miracle happens, the Philippines is likely to settle for second overall in the 24th Southeast Asian Games slated Dec. 6-16 in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
RP chief of mission and Bacolod City Representative Monico Puentevella made this prediction, expecting host Thailand to dominate the biennial 11-nation meet.
“It’s nice to dream but we have to be realistic,” said Puentevella in a radio interview. “We don’t want to raise false hopes. We should be happy finishing a decent second.”
Puentevella, who heads the country’s weightlifting association, said he expects the Filipinos to produce 60 to 90 gold medals, which he thinks would be good enough for second place overall.
“When we hosted the SEA Games two years ago we massacred the opposition with 112 gold medals. Now that the Thais are the host, it’s their time to massacre everyone,” Puentevella said.
The Philippines is likely to make impact in athletics, fencing, wrestling, taekwondo, snooker and billiards, wushu, aquatics, rowing, canoe-kayak, traditional boat race and other contact sports like karatedo and judo.
Boxing, the sport where the country has the best chance to medal in the Olympics, could produce two to three gold medals, according to Puentevella.
“We can’t expect more from the sport since we all know Thailand would take care of the judges there,” Puentevella said.
Thailand should also benefit from inclusions of sports where it has a strong chance of harvesting more gold medals. One example is Go, a Thai version of chess that replaced traditional chess. – Joey Villar