Inclusion of marathon events in Vietnam SEAG to boost RP’s gold medal hopes

The Philippines’ campaign in the 2003 Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam has received a big boost when the organizers decided to include the men’s and women’s marathon event in the athletics competition.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Celso Dayrit reported this positive development yesterday after receiving an advice from Malaysia Olympic Committee secretary general Datu Siek Kok Chi, who attended the SEAG Federation Council meeting in Ho Chi Minh City last Friday.

"This is good for us," said Dayrit of the inclusion of men’s and women’s marathon in the SEAG program. "This will boost our gold medal chances because the defending champions are both Filipinos — Roy Vence and Christabel Martes."

According to Dayrit, the Vietnamese organizers stood pat on their earlier decision to have only 32 sports disciplines contested in the Games, but agreed to add seven more events, including the men’s and women’s marathon.

The five other new events are men’s and women’s skeet in shooting, snooker team in billiard/snooker, men’s over 105-kilogram in weightlifting and women’s sabre team in fencing.

Dayrit had also appealed for the inclusion of bowling and golf, but the Vietnamese thumbed it down.

Except for the Philippines and Thailand, all SEA Federation members were represented in last Friday’s meeting.

Dayrit and other POC officials skipped the meeting because of a government travel ban due to the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) crisis.

The Philippines will compete in 28 of the 32 events in the Vietnam Games, namely, aquatics (water polo, swimming, diving), archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, billiards and snooker, body building, boxing, canoeing, chess, cycling, fencing, football, gymnastics, judo, karatedo, pencak silat, rowing, sepak takraw, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, traditional boat race, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.