RP bets seek 15 golds in SEAG

MANILA, Philippines - The 253-strong Philippine athletic contingent, still reeling from unresolved domestic problems, hopes to give fellow Filipinos back home a Christmas gift of about 15 gold medals, less than 10 percent of the 379 gold medals at stake, when the 25th Southeast Asian Games gets going in the Vientiane capital of Laos on Wednesday.

The number could increase or decrease depending on the vicissitudes of fortunes of Team Philippines, which is competing in 22 of 25 sports in the 11-nation biennial event slated Dec. 9-18 in this former French colony.

In a random interview with various national sports associations represented in the Games, billiards appears to have the biggest chance of producing at least five gold medals despite a leadership crisis which prevented top players from one faction from joining the national team.

Taekwondo, one of a handful of associations spared of political wranglings within their organizations, is looking at three gold medals. Athletics and boxing can snare two each, while golf, judo and wushu are good for one each.

Billiards will rely on the pair of Bata Reyes and Django Bustamante in the 9-Ball doubles, Dennis Orcullo and Ramil Gallego in the 9-Ball singles, Ronnie Alcano and Gandy Valle in the 8-Ball singles and Rubilen Amit, Mary Ann Basas and Iris Ranola in the women’s 8-Ball and 9-Ball singles.

Taekwondo is on track for three gold medals through Olympians Tshomlee Go (featherweight) and Mary Antonette Rivero and the team of Rani Ann Ortega, Francesca Camille Alarilla and Ma. Carla Janice Lagman who reigned in the women’s first team division in the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships last week in Egypt.

 Boxing’s best bets are Olympian Harry Tañamor and world champion Annie Albania. Golf is parading a strong women’s team composed of international champions Dottie Ardina, Chihiro Ikeda and Imelda Isabel Piccio.

Judo will be bannered anew by the ageless John Baylon, who is gunning for his eighth SEA Games gold medal.

Wushu, which is picking up the pieces after a breakdown in the association’s leadership, has a solid gold medal chance in Mary Jane Estimar, who won the gold in the Asian Martial Arts in Thailand last August.

The RP “delegations” – one composed of 151 athletes, the gold and silver medal winners from the last SEA Games, and the other composed of 100 additional athletes accommodated by the Philippine Olympic Committee – arrived in Vientiane yesterday aboard two separate flights from Manila.

Hardly had they unpacked their belongings in the Athletes Village when the water polo team, which came a week earlier, absorbed a 1-8 setback to perennial champion Singapore on the second day of action in the SEAG water polo competition, the only pre-SEAG event.

The Filipinos, who opened their bid with a 6-4 victory over Thailand Saturday, fell prey to the Singaporeans’ power and speed and took a severe beating from the team they would want to unseat.

Singapore, unbeaten since water polo was introduced in the biennial games in 1981, whipped Indonesia, 14-5, in the opener and is expected to sweep the round-robin elims among four teams when it takes on Thailand today.

The Philippines, which had lost the gold medal to Singapore by a mere goal in the last two SEAG staginga, tries to recover lost ground as it battles Indonesia starting at 1 p.m.