Elite Filipino athletes spearhead Philippine Asiad campaign

MANILA, Philippines — Sprinter Eric Cray, judoka Kiyomi Watanabe, boxer Eumir Felix Marcial and Olympian weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz will spearhead the country’s campaign in the 18th Asian Games set Aug. 18-Sept. 2 next year in Palembang and Jakarta, Indonesia.

Based on the new Philippine Olympic Committee criteria for the quadrennial event,   automatically qualified are gold and silver medal winners in the 2017 Southeast Asian and Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.

Cray copped the 400m hurdles gold and a silver in the century dash and Watanabe a gold in the women’s 63kg class. Marcial ruled boxing’s middleweight division while Diaz was a Rio Olympics and Ashgabat AIMAG silver medalist.

Margarita Ochoa and Annie Ramirez should also make the team after snatching a gold each in ju-jitsu in Ashgabat.

The Philippines brought home 24 golds, 33 silvers and 64 bronzes from Kuala Lumpur in one of the country’s disastrous performances in the biennial meet while scooping up a 2-14-14 (gold-silver-bronze) harvest in Ashgabat.

Likewise included in criteria are athletes who are privately funded for the Asian Games and 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. These are current Olympic Solidarity scholars and athletes with best time, distance, score of their sports who finished in the top 8 in World Championship and World Cup.

Also in are the top four in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, recent Asian Championships and Asian Cup.

POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. also said athletes missing the qualifying standard but “marginally could show potential to equal or surpass it” in time for next year’s Asiad might also be considered.

Cojuangco urged qualified athletes to step up their preparation.

“NSAs must also focus during the training on the strength conditioning and nutrition of their Asiad-bound athletes,” Cojuangco said in a statement.

Cojuangco said the Asiad will be held in two venues – Jakarta and Palembang – with 40 sports, 67 disciplines and 462 events. There are 28  Olympic sports, four new Olympic sports and eight non-Olympic sports. Jakarta will host 29 sports and Palembang  11.

Athletics has 48 gold medals at stake, swimming 41 and 10 golds in diving. Other sports are archery, basketball, badminton, baseball, rugby, softball, volleyball (indoor and beach), fencing, kurash and sambo, hockey, weightlifting, wrestling, taekwondo, wushu, kabaddi, table tennis, judo, jujitsu, karate, boxing, pencat silak, squash, handball, golf, cycling, paragliding, football, canoe, bowling, tennis, soft tennis, sport climbing, shooting, sepak takraw, roller sport and bridge. 

He said test events will be held Feb. 10-18, 2018 in archery, athletics, basketball (5-on-5), boxing, football, weightlifting, volley indoor, taekwondo and pencak silat.