Carrion sees better SEAG finish

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines could  easily  surpass its gold-medal production in the  Southeast Asian Games in Singapore two years  if it could come up with one winner in every event the Nationals are entered in.

This year’s SEA Games will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from Aug. 19 to 31, and the Philippines will be hard-pressed to do better than it did two years ago.

The Philippines finished sixth overall in Singapore with 29 gold, 36 silver and 66 bronze medals, behind Thailand (95-83-69), the host country (84-73-102), Vietnam (73-53-60), Malaysia (62-58-66) and Indonesia (47-61-74).

Cynthia Carrion of gymnastics, this year’s chef-de-mission for the Philippine delegation, said the intention is to field the best Filipino athletes to win more medals.

The Philippines is looking to field no less than 400 athletes to vie in 37 of the 38 sports offering a total of 45 gold medals.

Carrion said if only Filipino athletes can win at least one gold medal for every sport, then it will already surpass the 2015 gold-medal output.

“Every sport has to give me at least one gold medal. If some will win two or three then we will already surpass (2015 output),” said Carrion.

In the 2015 SEA Games, the Philippines won gold medals in only 15 of the 35 sports it participated in, with athletics fielding 36 bets and winning the most number of medals (5-7-9).

Meanwhile, the SEA Games Task Force has entered the second round of talks with the different NSAs (national sports associations) that will field entries to the SEAG.

Task force head Tom Carrasco said the discussions will continue to revolve on the needs and requirements of the athletes and coaches who will represent the country in this year’s SEAG. 

But Carrasco stressed that the talks running so close to the SEA Games doesn’t mean that things are not yet in place.

“Things are moving well,” said Carrasco in brushing off that insinuation that the Philippine campaign is pressed for time.

 “No, we’re not cramming,” he said.

 In fact, there are Filipino athletes who are now training overseas.