Camacho says 4th place in SEAG ‘doable’

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine delegation chef de mission Julian Camacho said the other day he’s not the type to make promises but looking over the roster of Filipino athletes expected to compete at the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore on June 5-16, the POC treasurer expressed optimism that a fourth place finish for the country is “doable.”

“We’ll probably send 300 to 400 athletes to Singapore,” said Camacho, also the Wushu Federation of the Philippines (WFP) secretary-general. “The deadline for the submission of entries by name for accreditation was last Dec. 21 but we’ve appealed for an extension because of the holidays. We’ll finalize the roster by April 15 which is the absolute deadline for entries by name. The DRM (Delegation Registration Meeting) is scheduled on May 20-23 and as chef de mission, I’ll be attending to formally present all the requirements of our delegation to the organizing committee.”

Camacho, who was Philippine chef de mission at the 2003 SEA Games in Vietnam and deputy chef de mission at the 2001 SEA Games in Malaysia and 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia, said 36 sports and 402 events are listed in next year’s calendar. “We’re participating in 32 or 33 sports, leaving out floorball, netball and field hockey,” he said. “As chef de mission, this is the most challenging responsibility because of the size of our delegation. We’ll bring along a staff of 10 to 15. There will be no Athletes Village in Singapore. Instead, the delegations will be spread out to about 20 hotels so to assemble the athletes in time for their events will be a logistical issue.”

Camacho said he’s confident the Philippines will improve on its seventh place finish at the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar. “We’ll definitely do better than seventh,” he said. “I think fourth place is doable. Let’s assume we get five golds each from five target sports like athletics, swimming, gymnastics, canoeing and shooting. Then, we get three each from 10 other sports like boxing, taekwondo, wushu, judo, billiards and cycling. That will add up to 55 gold medals which should be good enough for fourth place. Of course, we can generate more golds from other sports.” At the 2013 SEA Games, the Philippines slid to an all-time low of seventh place with 29 gold medals of 461 at stake.

Camacho said under the guidelines set by POC president Jose Cojuangco, Jr., about 10 percent of the Filipino athletes participating in Singapore will be in the “developmental” category. “We want to expose our young athletes to international competition early,” he said. “If an athlete doesn’t meet the qualifying standards but is close or has the potential to improve in the future, we’ll consider inclusion in the delegation on a selective basis.”

Camacho said the POC will start closely monitoring the training of Singapore-bound athletes at the turn of the year. “The PSC is providing financial assistance for NSAs to recruit foreign coaches,” he said. “In wushu, we’re fortunate that Master Chen Guo-Rong, the vice president of the Chinese Wushu Association, used to be our coach and he’s tapping a coach from Jiangsu for us. We’re retaining our other Chinese coach Tong Qing Hai who has been with us for five years now. The problem is in Singapore, the organizing committee is allocating only two gold medals for sanda (sanshou or sparring) and 18 for taolu (forms) in wushu. I think it’s unfair to the athletes. The ideal split is 60 percent for taolu and 40 percent for sanda.  Imagine if you’re training for sanda and now, you’re told there are only two gold medals at stake in two weight divisions.”

Camacho said as a member of the International Wushu Federation executive committee, he is pushing for reforms to make the sport more accessible to more countries. “At the Asian Games this year, China took 10 of 15 gold medals in wushu,” he said. “Of course, China is dominant in wushu which is a Chinese martial art.  Other countries don’t have much of a chance to win gold medals anymore.  My proposal is to limit a country to participate in no more than 50 percent of the events in wushu to give other countries an opportunity to get a gold medal. Taekwondo did something similar to get more countries interested to participate. I’m also proposing to make the split between taolu and sanda gold medals closer to 50-50. In Singapore, the split is lopsided and it’s unjust since we are traditionally strong in sanda.”

At the 2013 SEA Games, the Philippines claimed three golds in wushu, one in taolu through Daniel Parantac and two in sanda through Jessie Aligaga in the 48 kilogram category and Denbert Arcita in the 52 kilogram class. Up for grabs were 18 gold medals in taolu and five in sanda.

Camacho has been involved in Philippine wushu since 1989 and served as WFP chairman for eight years, president for eight years and now, secretary-general up to 2016. “We’re very proud of the accomplishments of our wushu athletes,” he said. “Last year, we took our 100th gold medal in international competitions since we began participating. And so far this year, we’ve added seven more gold medals.”