Task Force eyes fifth place in SEA Games

MANILA, Philippines -  The joint Philippine Olympic Committee-Philippine Sports Commission Southeast Games Task Force has set a conservative target of fifth place at best in the coming SEAG in Malaysia, conceding it will be virtually impossible to land in the Top 4.

Chef de mission Cynthia Carrion said from 29 last time, they’re eyeing 40 to 47 gold medals which they feel should be good enough to improve Team Philippines’ standing by one notch in the biennial games.

“After the initial meetings with the NSAs, we’re encouraged that we can have more medals, we can make 40 gold medals and if we try more, we can have at least 47 and we can be in fifth place,” Carrion said during yesterday’s presscon with the Philippine Sports Commission led by chairman Butch Ramirez and members of the Task Force.

“I’m sure we can make miracles with the help of the PSC which is now helping us full force,” she added.

Team Philippines wound up sixth overall in the 2015 edition of the SEAG in Singapore behind Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia with a harvest of 29 golds, 36 silvers and 66 bronze medals. The Pinoy bets finished 18 golds short of fifth-placing Indonesia’s 47.

“We thought that the decent finish would be fifth place. It would be impossible for us to target fourth right now because we’ve seen the figures of other countries in the past SEA Games and we really believe it’s a little far so a very clear possibility for us is to target for improvement, land in fifth place,” said deputy chef de mission Dave Carter.

Carrion, meanwhile, added that they will make sure the needs of the participating athletes are taken care of.

“They’re going to have a lot more exposure; everybody submitted their programs and we approved them, and they can get new equipment,” said the delegation head.