The trek to glory intensifies as the biggest batch of Filipino athletes, including those from centerpiece athletics and aquatics, left for Cambodia on Tuesday to compete in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games.
A total of 140 Filipino athletes become the latest to walk into the Athletes Village near the Morodok Techo National Sports Center, carrying an important mission of leading the country to the title it last tasted when it hosted the Games in 2019.
Stars like William Morrison and Clinton Bautista of athletics, Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam of boxing and Junna Tsukii and Jamie Lim of karate were part of the big group that left Manila for the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.
They joined other athletes from pencak silat, Kun Bokator, swimming, boxing, teqball and Esports while those from sailing, chess, hockey, men’s volleyball, triathlon, soft tennis, jiu jitsu, and pentathlon have already arrived in Cambodia to jumpstart their SEA Games campaign.
Alyssa Valdez, the designated flag bearer of the all-female squad that will march in the traditional parade of colors, will be leaving on Friday, few hours before the opening ceremony, while her equally popular teammates — the women’s volleyball team — will be arriving on Saturday.
Gilas Pilipinas, meanwhile, will leave on Saturday, giving it enough time to warm up for its redemption tour in the men’s basketball event that starts on Tuesday.
The Philippines is looking to surpass its fourth-place finish in the previous staging of the Games in Hanoi, where it emerged with 52 gold, 70 silver and 105 bronze medals.
This time, Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino refused to issue a projection but expressed optimism over the possibility of surpassing their previous finish.
“(My prediction for our overall finish) changed a bit because last SEA Games we sent 600 plus athletes. Now, we are sending 800 plus athletes so that’s a huge factor aside from the surprises,” Tolentino said in a previous statement.
“There will be a lot of surprises. Remember that all the restrictions (selection of sports to be played) will be applicable to all except the host. So, we’re just going to play 10 games like Vietnam and Thailand.”
Philippine Sports Commission chairperson Richard Bachmann, for his part, said the government had done its best to support the athletes.
In fact, the PSC allotted P250 million to cover the airfare, accommodation, allowance and competition uniform as well as the training and competition expenses of 860 athletes seeing action in the biennial meet.
“The PSC is supporting them 110 percent. We have been meeting with the NSA and athletes and everything looks good,” Bachmann said.
“The goal always is to be better than last year. I know that there are a lot of sports that were included but I hope we can do better.”
