RP ready for Paragames campaign

Filipino athletes cast their bid in the fourth Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Paragames starting tomorrow with a total of 682 gold medals to be disputed by the best differently abled athletes in the region with aquatics and athletics accounting for 259 and 250, respectively, in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

Aside from the two medal-rich sports, the Filipinos are also seeing action in chess, table tennis, powerlifting, judo, shooting, fencing, badminton, boccia, archery and wheelchair basketball.

Although the country has sent 26 athletes in track and field, RP chief de mission Ral Rosario said they’re pinning their hopes more on Adeline Dumapong in powerlifting, the duo of Sander Severino and Henry Lopez in chess, the pair of Josephine Medina and Minnie de Ramos in table tennis and 10-man swimming team.

Dumapong has dominated the Paragames the last few years while Severino, Lopez, Medina and de Ramos were multiple gold medal winners in the 2005 Manila edition of the event where RP finished sixth with a 22-gold haul.

“We have better chance of winning the gold medals in these sports,” said Rosario.

Meanwhile, the Filipinos went through the compulsory classification process yesterday after settling down in this city known as Korat following a three-hour flight from Manila to Bangkok and a four-hour land travel from the capital to the main hub, the same venue of the recent 24th SEA Games.

“So far everything went okay,” said Rosario, who joined Philippine Sports Association for the Differently Abled (Philspada) president Mike Barredo and deputy chief de mission Noel Ascue in Korat.