Asiad goal: 10 golds from 50 athletes

MANILA, Philippines - Fifty athletes and 10 gold medals.

These are the magic numbers Philippine Sports Commission chairman Harry Angping is looking at as the country sets its sights on the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou.

“I think that will be good enough for the Asian Games,” said the PSC chairman, adding that the athletes who will vie in the next Asian Games should be identified by January.

“We’re looking at 50 athletes, and these will include most of the gold medalists in the Laos SEA Games. Again, we’re looking at a lean delegation,” he told scribes Monday evening.

The Philippines won four golds in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, two of them courtesy of boxing and one each from billiards and wushu. It also won six silvers and nine bronze medals.

Angping, barely 10 months as PSC chairman, is counting on these disciplines to deliver anew in Guangzhou, as well as taekwondo or even dancesport.

Angping said with the proper training and motivation, the Filipino athletes should surpass the 2006 gold medal haul in the next Asian Games.

“It’s hard but achievable. We have taekwondo, boxing, wushu and dancesport,” he said.

“It will start on the process of elimination. We will study the comparative records and see if they will fit to the Asian Games standard,” Angping said yesterday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Filipino athletes who accounted for the 38 golds in Laos, either in individual or team events, received their cash incentives of P100,000 for each gold from the government sports agency.

The athletes all came out of the stadium grinning from ear to ear.

“Because for the first time probably, the incentives were given away in cash. I made sure it came in crisp P500 bills. It was Christmas three days ahead for each of them,” he said.

The other P200,000 bonus for each gold, coming from the national government and the private sector, is being readied, but for the meantime, Angping said, the PSC has done its share.

“They were all very happy. I saw it in their faces. And so I told them to go for it in Guangzhou. Win the medals and get greater rewards,” said Angping.

The PSC chief also pledged an additional P200,000 for each of the four Filipino athletes who broke the SEA Games records in Laos. They are swimmers Daniel Coakley and Ryan Arabejo, tracksters Marestella Torres and Arniel Ferrera.

“Marestella broke a 20-year-old record, and for that she deserves P200,000 more, as well as the others,” said Angping.