Nationals off to Asiad war

MANILA, Philippines - The athletes tapped to don the Philippine colors to the 16th Asian Games have begun leaving in batches for Guangzhou, China, all pumped up and hopefully well-prepared to equal, if not surpass, the four-gold, six-silver, nine-bronze harvest of the last Asiad.

Early birds in the southern Chinese city among the 188 athletes are the sailing team which arrived last Nov. 4 to attend to their boat being delivered from Australia; judoka John Baylon and weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who went to Guangzhou in time for today’s Torch Run; and the Gilas Pilipinas cage team and two triathletes who left Manila ahead of the others yesterday.

The main bulk of Team Philippines, composed of 64 athletes from 13 sports, is booked to board two separate flights to Guangzhou today via China Southern Airlines. They will be accompanied in the two-hour direct flight by 36 coaches, team managers and officials, led by chef de mission Joey Romasanta.

Leading this big batch are Wushu Tournament Beijing 2008 silver medalist Mary Jane Estimar and bronze medalists Benjie Rivera and Marianne Mariano, Olympian rower Benjie Tolentino, Olympian shooters Jethro Dionisio and Eric Ang, and Asia’s first Grandmaster Eugene Torre.

Aside from wushu, rowing, shooting and chess, the other sports represented in this bunch are canoe-kayak, cycling, dancesport, gymnastics, judo, tennis, soft tennis, and weightlifting. Dancesport has the most number of delegates with 12 athletes and three coaches, followed by soft tennis with 10 bets and two mentors.

The next day, Nov. 11, it will be the turn of 45-athlete strong group topbilled by gold medal prospects billiards, bowling and taekwondo along with swimming.

The stellar cast is bannered by world-class cuemasters Efren Reyes, Dennis Orcollo and Rubilen Amit, two-time Olympian jin Tshomlee Go, and former bowling champs Liza del Rosario and Liza Clutario and Bowling World Cup third placer Biboy Rivera. With them are Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco Jr. and Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richie Garcia.

The rest of the athletes will depart for the southern Chinese city in nine other batches: Xiangqi chess on Nov. 12; golf and karate on Nov. 13; archery on Nov. 14; fencing, squash and the fancied boxing team on Nov. 15; softball and diving on Nov. 17; athletics on Nov. 18; wrestling on Nov. 19; and rhythmic gymnastics on Nov. 23.