MANILA, Philippines — This early, the Philippines is already losing part of the battle in next year’s Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Chonburi and Songkhla in Thailand after the host country decided to remove some events considered as gold mines for the Filipinos.
One of the disciplines scrapped by the Thais was weightlifting, which delivered the country its breakthrough Olympic gold medal in the Tokyo Games courtesy of Hidilyn Diaz.
Also delisted from the calendar were wushu, jiu-jitsu and karate, which are all sources of triumphs in the past.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino said the move could easily cost the Filipinos around eight golds.
“We already appealed to the Thai hosts for the inclusion of weightlifting, wushu, jiu-jitsu and karate,” said Tolentino, who attended the SEA Games Federation meeting in Bangkok over the weekend.
“And it’s not only the Philippines which appealed, but a majority of the (SEA) Games members,” he added.
In the last edition in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the country scooped up golds in those discarded events courtesy of Kaila Napolis, Annie Ramirez and Marc Lim in jiu-jitsu, Agatha Wong in wushu, Jamie Lim and Sakura Alforte in karate and Elreen Ando and Vanessa Sarno in weightlifting.
That’s why the POC is moving heaven and earth to convince the Thais to reconsider.
“We will lose a lot of gold medals if the appeal won’t be granted,” said Tolentino.