153 athletes make Team RP

MANILA, Philippines - One hundred fifty-three athletes will head the country’s campaign in the Southeast Asian Games this December in Laos, making it the smallest Filipino delegation in the biennial sporting conclave in years.

The Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee came up with final roster in a meeting yesterday, nine weeks before the 25th staging of the regional meet among 11 nations is fired off Dec. 9 in Vientiane.

“This should be the leanest and meanest RP team we’ve ever assembled,” said PSC chair Harry Angping after a meeting with POC second vice president and chief of mission Mario Tanchangco.

The Laos contingent will be just 25 percent of the 627 athletic delegation which competed in the 2007 SEAG in Thailand where the RP bets finished a dismal sixth overall with 42 medals.

The PSC and the POC also approved 47 officials join the contingent.

The PSC had batted for a small delegation to the Laos meet, which calendared only 27 sports either due to lack of facilities or lack of chances for the hosts to medal.

“I’m glad the NSAs heeded our call for a smaller delegation this year. Everybody cooperated and that’s a very good sign. Now it’s time to hope for the best,” said Angping.

The best will come from 21 sports as the RP sports officials decided to scrap the RP bets participation in indoor volleyball, beach volleyball, badminton, football, table tennis and soft tennis.

Taekwondo, a perennial medal producer for RP in various international competitions, has the biggest number of athletes in the roster with 17 jins, including eight in the debuting poomsae event.

Billiards and snooker, to be bannered by the likes of pool legends Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante, have 15 slots, the same number for sepak takraw.

Water polo and boxing have the next most number of slots with 13 and 12, respectively, while athletics and golf will field in nine and seven players, respectively.

Six slots have been allotted each for swimming, karatedo, tennis and petanque while muay thai, shooting, archery and diving have berths each and judo, pencak silat and cycling have four slots each.

Weightlifting, wrestling and wushu have three spots each.

The names of the athletes will be released next week.

“We have studied the matter carefully. All sentiments of the POC and the PSC are the same. Everybody deserved to be in the lineup,” said Tanchangco.

The PSC and the POC actually eyed some 250 athletes for the Laos meet ending Dec. 18 but decided to slash it to a minimum after a thorough screening of the athletes’ previous and present performances.

Meanwhile, Angping said a cash bonanza awaits the 153-athletic delegation, stressing it’s about time to give the athletes what they truly deserve.