KUALA LUMPUR – SEA Games Philippine chef de mission Cynthia Carrion said she knew “from the heart of hearts” a 50-gold harvest that she predicted was a long shot.
She said she made that astronomical target based on the projections of the various national sports associations and in an effort to motivate the Filipino athletes.
“They (the NSA leaders) always say ‘we’re gonna get four, we’re gonna get five.’ So I said ‘let’s go, let’s go.’ If I said ‘no, you can’t do it,’ it would not motivate them,” she said on a Facebook live interview by veteran journalist Ron delos Reyes.
“But I know from the heart of hearts,” she added. “I overdid. I did that to motivate them.”
But the Philippines made no progress from its sixth-place showing the last time and instead crashed down in terms of gold medal haul at the close of the KL Games here yesterday.
As last bet Kathryn Magno finished outside the Top Three in short track speed skating, the 498-strong Phl delegation ended up with a measly medal harvest of 24 gold, 33 silver and 64 bronze in 404 events in 38 different sports disciplines played in the regional sports conclave.
Malaysia exerted so much effort to have a great, great success in the games with a final day coinciding with the nation’s Independence Day, outclassing the field with a runaway gold-silver-bronze tally of 145-92-86.
Thailand (72-86-88) and Vietnam (58-50-60) remained as steady performers as second- and third placers, respectively, Singapore couldn’t be sneezed at with a 57-58-73 tally while Indonesia (38-63-90) finished with a comfortable lead over the Philippines at fifth.
Team Phl was way off the finish predicted by its chef de mission, and in the end, even failed to match its 29-gold production in 2015 in Singapore.