Seventy-nine athletes, including trainees for the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand in December, make up a 117-man Philippine delegation which will compete in the Macau second Asian Indoor Games which starts tomorrow in several venues interspersed within the former Portuguese colony.
Majority of the athletes have left via Hong Kong while the last batch, composed of several officials and eight entries in chess are scheduled to leave early morning today to catch up with the opening ceremonies at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the 17,000-seat Macau Stadium.
The Macau Indoor Games, serving as one of the final tune-ups for Filipino athletes competing in the Thailand SEA Games, follows the theme of “Harmonious society and fun,” with athletes from 45 nations competing in 15 events.
The Philippines has entries in aerobic gymnastics (6), bowling (8), chess (8), dance sport (12), sports climbing (extreme sports, 4), swimming (6), futsal 14), hoop sepak takraw (5), muay (5), kickboxing (3) and 3-on-3 basketball (4).
Other sports with no Philippine entry are cue sports, dragon and lion dance, electronic sports (E-Sports), indoor cycling and indoor hockey. 3-on 3 basketball and kickboxing are demonstration sports.
Philippine Sports Commissioner Richie Garcia acts as chief-of-mission with Red Dumuk serving as assistant.
Bowler Markwin Tee, gold medalist in the Manila SEA Games, was elected flag bearer for Team Philippines.
The Philippine flag will be raised at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Plaza of Sai Van Lake along with the delegations from Nepal and Mongolia.
Macau has built and refurbished numerous international standard venues for this event, which was conceptualized by members of the Olympic Council of Asia in 2001 and approved by its majority in Busan, Korea the following year.