Philippines to bat for additional SEAG events in Vietnam
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will lobby for at least five sports that it hopes to be included in the four host Hanoi, Vietnam is willing to accommodate when it hosts the Southeast Asian Games next year.
“Member countries are allowed recommend a minimum of five sports each and will make full use of it,” said Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.
The PhilCycling chief and Tagaytay Congressman said he will bat for the inclusion of arnis, skateboarding, triathlon, obstacle course and esports among others since those were events the country raked in most of their medals.
A total of 36 disciplines spread through 450 events were already set by Hanoi in the calendar and it has announced it might agree to insert in the last minute a maximum of four more events.
It was a far cry from the 56 sports or a record of 530 events that were calendared when the country harvested a historic 149 gold medals in the SEAG in December last year.
“Hard to guess what are the sports that will be accepted out of the 20-plus that I expect to be proposed,” said Tolentino.
The Filipinos ran away with the over title in the last SEAG edition.
But with arnis, skateboarding, obstacle course, jiujitsu, esports, sailing, soft tennis, triathlon, sambo, surfing, wakeboarding, windsurfing, modern pentathlon, baseball, duathlon, rugby, softball and squash — which delivered 58 golds for the country — gone, that might be a tough act to follow.
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