RP to appeal events scrapped from SEAG

The Philippines will lobby for the re-inclusion of 15 to 16 events initially scrapped from the calendar of the 24th Southeast Asian Games slated Dec. 6-16 in Nakhon Ratchasima when the SEAG Federation meets on Monday in Bangkok.

Among the sports the Philippines will push for re-inclusion in the two-day meet are diving, shooting, wrestling and wushu, which were dropped from the SEAG roster during the Federation meeting last year, according to Philippine Sports commissioner and Task Force co-chair Ritchie Garcia.

“It’s only justifiable that these events be re-included,” said Garcia. “I hope they’ll prioritize these because these are all Olympic sports.”

Garcia was referring to events in diving (1M springboard and 3M synchronized springboard), wushu (-54kgs, -48kgs, -70kgs, male and female duilian), weightlifting (120kgs and 96kgs) and shooting (practical shooting), all potential goldmines for RP.

RP sports officials will also bat for events in boxing (women’s lightweight class), billiards (15-ball singles and doubles, 9-ball double and 8-ball double), traditional boat race (men’s 10 and 20-aside 1,000 meters, women’s 10-aside 1,000m and 20-aside 500m), two events in bodybuilding and three in arnis to be included in this year’s SEAG.

These events produced gold medals for the Philippines that led to the country’s first-ever overall championship in the 2005 Manila SEAG.

“We hope that these events will also be re-included,” Garcia said.

Garcia will leave today for Bangkok along with Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, Jr., secretary-general Steve Hontiveros, chief of mission Monico Puentevella and wushu’s Francis Camacho.

“It will not be easy since we expect a lot of objections, but the important thing here is we will try,” Garcia said.

The meeting on Monday will finalize the calendar of events in the biennial, 11-nation meet. Deadline for submission of entries by number is on June 9.

Swimming chief Mark Joseph, for his part, said they expect the 355 athletes who initially passed the criteria to increase after the Federation meeting.

“The 355 athletes, who are all medallists in the 2005 Manila SEAG, will form the nucleus of the team,” said Joseph in yesterday’s SCOOP sa Kamayan. “But we could be expecting more.”