MANILA, Philippines — Ahead of mixed gender relay’s debut in the 2020 Olympics, the Philippines will feature co-ed events in athletics when it hosts the Southeast Asian Games in November.
“We’ll put the 4x100 meter and 4x400 meter mixed gender relay in the SEA Games (program) and they will be formal events already,” said Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association president Philip Ella Juico.
Mixed gender relay is set to become an Olympic event in Tokyo as the International Olympic Committee added male-and-female 4x400m relay in athletics and 4x100m relay in swimming as well as mixed team relay in triathlon in the Tokyo Games.
The 4x400m mixed relay competition was actually played already at 2017 IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas and the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
Team Phl counts its 4x100m co-ed aces as among the bright prospects in its 13-gold target in the 2019 SEAG, with stalwarts like Eric Cray, Trenten Berram, Kayla Richardson and Kristina Knott expected to spearhead the bid.
Juico said co-ed 4x100 and 4x400 m relays will also be held in the Philippine Athletics Championship in Ilagan in March.
According to the Patafa boss, the Philippines will stage mixed gender relay events in the SEAG instead of the 20K walk, and the 10K and 5K distances for men’s and women’s, which he explained will be costly to hold.
“These events incur expenses. In the 20K walk, two events will require six international technical officials from abroad and we’ll pay for plane fare, board and lodging, etc.,” he said.
Juico said the Filipino tracksters’ main objective in the SEAG is to achieve their best-ever showing of 13 golds.
“We told them the government is spending anywhere between P2.5 billion to P7 billion to stage the SEA Games so we should justify our presence here,” he said.