Philippine hosts Games in full force

MANILA, Philippines — Host Philippines is deploying 1,084 athletes composed of 637 male and 447 female to participate in 56 sports and seven adjunct disciplines at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games which will be formally launched at the opening ceremony in the Philippine Arena, Bulacan, on Saturday.

No other country in the 11-nation conclave has competitors in every event. Thailand is fielding 981 athletes, including 569 male, in 58 sports/disciplines while Indonesia will be represented by 817 athletes, including 497 male, in 56. The other countries are Malaysia with 773 athletes in 56 sports/disciplines, Singapore with 665 athletes in 53, Vietnam with 573 athletes in 44, Myanmar with 348 athletes in 35, Cambodia with 277 athletes in 33, Laos with 206 athletes in 24, Brunei with 87 athletes in 14 and Timor Leste with 55 athletes in 11. Total number of athletes is 5,864 broken down into 3,580 male and 2,284 female.

The 56 sports in the official calendar are aquatics, archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, beach handball, billiards, bowling, boxing, canoe/kayak/traditional boat race, chess, cycling, dancesport, e-sports, fencing, floorball, football, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, ice skating, indoor hockey, jiu-jitsu, karatedo, kick-boxing, kurash, lawn bowls, modern pentathlon, muay, netball, obstacle sports, pencak silat, polo, rowing, rugby 7s, sailing/windsurfing, sambo, sepak takraw, shooting, skateboarding, soft tennis, squash, surfing, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon/duathlon, underwater hockey, volleyball, wakeboarding, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.

Additionally, the schedule lists seven adjunct disciplines that are under specific sports. They are beach volleyball under volleyball, petanque under lawn bowls, softball under baseball, 3x3 under basketball, diving, water polo and open water swimming under aquatics or swimming. There are 63 total sports and adjunct disciplines, all of which the Philippines is participating in. The host country is competing with a full contingent.

Only four sports will be played by all 11 countries – taekwondo, swimming under aquatics,  athletics and football. Four sports will bring in 10 countries each – boxing excluding Brunei, golf excluding Timor Leste, karatedo excluding Singapore and tennis excluding Brunei.

This year’s SEA Games will be the biggest ever in terms of most athletes (5,864) and most sports (56). The largest previous participation was 5,336 athletes when the Philippines hosted in 2005 with 892 competitors and the most sports was 44 when Indonesia hosted in 2011. 

The sport with the most participation is football with 339 athletes from 11 countries. Next is athletics with 335 athletes from 11 countries. Other sports with at least 100 participating athletes are canoe/kayak/traditional boat race with 227 from eight countries, floorball with 190 from five, e-sports with 172 from nine, softball with 153 from five, indoor volleyball with 150 from seven, taekwondo with 146 from 11, rugby 7s with 144 from six, fencing with 138 from nine, sepak takraw with 137 from nine, 5x5 basketball with 130 from eight, cycling with 126 from nine, judo with 120 from nine, indoor hockey with 120 from six, badminton with 117 from eight, shooting with 116 from eight, karatedo with 115 from 10, baseball with 111 from five, gymnastics with 109 from seven and billiards with 100 from nine.

The total number of athletes and officials, including coaches, is 8,544. According to PHISGOC vice director for sports services Rachel Ribo Dumuk, the entries by name translate into a 20 percent reduction from the 10,956 earlier submitted by number.