GTK boasts: Marathon will bring 10th gold

The Philippine athletics chief Go Teng Kok insisted on the eve of the marathon event in the 23rd SEA Games that his team would deliver 10 gold medals. Otherwise, he said he would hang himself.

Go is confident the local bets would sweep the men’s and women’s marathon crowns and his team would be celebrating their 10-gold harvest in the Games by 7:30 this morning.

Allan Ballester, Roy Vence and Cristabel Martes are the highly-favored Filipino bets in the event starting at 5 a.m. inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

"Allan Ballester is the defending champion but Roy Vence is a veteran runner. Both are capable of winning the gold. They could well finish 1-2 in the event," said Go.

"Cristabel Martes did 2:38 in her most recent run and that’s very impressive, considering her rivals are only doing 2:50 or even slower," said Go.

The outspoken athletics chief is two short of his gold medal projection with his team having won eight gold medals in the first four days of track and field competitions in the biennial games.

"I’m sticking to my word. If we don’t get 10 gold medals, I’m willing to submit myself to public judgment. If they say I should resign, I will resign," said Go. "I will let the public decide."

Should they hit 10 gold medals, Go, however, said he would still be dissatisfied because of their close misses in a number of events, including the disqualification of Eduardo Buenavista in the 5,000m run.

As it is, the RP track and field team has surpassed its showing in Vietnam two years ago with a haul of eight gold, 10 silver and eight bronze medals. The team amassed only eight gold and three silver medals in the 2003 Vietnam Games.

Before the 2005 games started, Go declared "I have 10 gold medals in my pocket."