626-strong Philippine team vies in Hanoi Games

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will pin its hopes on 626 athletes from 39 sports as it shoots for a podium finish in the 31st Southeast Asian Games set Nov. 21 to Dec. 2 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham Tolentino yesterday presented to Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William Ramirez a 10-page list of the country’s entry by numbers to the biennial games.

Chef-de-mission Ramon Fernandez, a PSC commissioner, also received a copy of the list, which is about half of the 1,115 athletes who represented the country in the 2019 Manila edition.

As host, the Philippines ran away with the overall title after a historic haul of 149 gold, 117 silver and 121 bronze medals.

“After a careful review, this has been prepared with the end mind of victory for our beloved country, to be able to do our best and continue to defend our title as overall champion of the 30th edition of the SEAG,” said Tolentino.

Athletics, which emerged as the second best performer in 2019 with 11 gold, eight silver and eight bronzes behind only  arnis’ 14, will have the biggest representation with 63 athletes (38 men and 25 women) followed by cycling’s 39.

Team sports like basketball, volleyball, football and handball will have 38, 36, 28 and 10 entries, respectively.

Gymnastics, led by Tokyo-bound world champion Caloy Yulo, will field 25 along with taekwondo’s 24, fencing’s 24, wushu’s 21, chess’ 20 and canoe-kayak’s 19.

Also entered were esports (18), aquatics (17), judo (17), pencak silat (16), shooting (16), karate (15), weightlifting (14), boxing (13), rowing (13), wrestling (13), kickboxing (12), muay (12), bodybuilding (10), billiards and snooker (8), dancesport (8), tennis (8), golf (7), archery (6), badminton (6), bowling (6), jiu-jitsu (6), sepak takraw (6), vovinam (6), fin swimming (5) and table tennis (3).

Training of SEAG-bound athletes has actually started in bubble set-ups in different provinces.