412 athletes bound for Vietnam

The Philippine Olympic Committee Southeast Asian Games technical commission yesterday approved the final roster of 412 athletes who will represent the country in the biennial meet set from Dec. 5-13 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

POC spokesman Gus Villanueva said the group, which met yesterday, is also awaiting the official list from athletics chief Go Teng Kok, who is expected to recommend from 27 to 30 athletes.

But the number of athletes going to Hanoi this December is expected to reach 453 with the athletics list being added to the roster together with eight from swimming, two in judo and one from karatedo.

However, men’s football and women’s traditional boat race, didn’t make it as they failed to meet the requirements of the task force. Football came up with only three Fil-Am booters, four less than the seven it promised months back while traditional boat race failed to form a team of 25.

Approved for inclusion to the RP SEAG contingent were swimming (6), diving (6), water polo (13), archery (8), canoeing/kayaking (6), cycling (19), fencing (18), women’s football (20), gymnastics (14), aerobics (9), karatedo (26), pencak silat (17), judo (10), rowing (10), sepak takraw (20), shooting (22), men’s traditional boat race (25), volleyball (24), weightlifting (6), wrestling (21), wushu (15) and table tennis (8).

Others set to go to Ho Chi Minh City were badminton (8), basketball (24), billiards (20), bodybuilding (5), boxing (9), chess (11), judo (14), taekwondo (16) and lawn tennis (8).

Named as administrative managers were Carlos Santos Viola for Hanoi and Red Dumuk for Ho Chi Minh.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education gave regional directors until Oct. 10 to submit their official rosters for this year’s Palarong Pambansa scheduled from Oct. 25-29 in Tubod, Lanao del Norte.

In the memorandum sent to all regional directors early this week, DepEd undersecretary Ramon Bacani said athletes who would have qualified in the annual event, postponed several times now, are eligible to compete.