MANILA — Over 8,000 athletes from 10 ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste will be taking part in 56 sports at the competition themed, “We Win as One” at the 30th Southeast Asian Games which the country will host from November 30 to December 11 this year.
This is the fourth time the Philippines is hosting the SEA Games after having done so in 1981, 1991 and 2005.
The Philippines will be represented by 1,115 athletes and 753 coaches and officials.
Indonesia, the 2011 SEA Games overall champion, has the second-biggest delegation with 1,702, including a significant number of self-funded athletes and officials.
Singapore entered the third biggest delegation with 1,591, followed by Thailand with 1,473, Malaysia, with 1,076, followed by Myanmar with 952.
Vietnam, the next host of the SEA Games in 2021, is ranked 7th in terms of the number of a delegation with 890 as it did not field athletes in most team events, except in football, volleyball and men’s basketball.
The Malaysian contingent of 773 athletes and 339 officials, led by chef de mission, Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Omardin, is targeting 70 gold medals, 51 silver and 105 bronze from 52 sports.
Cambodia, the host of the 2023 SEA Games, fielded 510, followed by Laos with 419, Brunei with 257 and Timor-Leste with 221.
The Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC) officials said the final number of entries may still go down depending on the delegation registration.
A total of 530 gold medals will be at stake in 56 sports in the 30th edition of the biennial meet, which the Philippines will host for the fourth time. It hosted the event in 1981, 1991 and 2005.
The Philippines is hoping to land in the top three among the 11 participating members of the SEA Games.
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William ‘Butch’ Ramirez, who is also the Chief of Mission of the Philippine delegation, believes that Team Philippines will perform well in the 30th biennial games.
Based on the assessments and medal projections made by national sports association (NSA) officials, Ramirez said Team Philippines can win 90 to 100 gold medals.
Ramirez said the PSC board has approved all the needed funds for the exposures and training of all the national athletes to prepare them well for the biennial games.
“The PSC spent for all the training, especially the foreign exposures of the athletes for the SEA Games,” Ramirez said.
“We hope to find Olympic-grade athletes from them as well as the Tokyo Games are also just around the corner,” he added.
This year’s 44 Games venues are divided into four groups – the Clark cluster, Metro Manila cluster, Subic cluster and “other areas.”
Full list of Asian Games 2019 sports:
Compulsory sports
Athletics
Men: 10,000m, 100m, 110m hurdles, 1,500m, 200m, 20km walk, 3,000m steeplechase, 400m hurdles, 400m, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, 5,000m run, 50km walk, 800m, decathlon, discus, hammer, high jump, javelin, long jump, marathon, pole vault, Shot Put, triple jump
Women: 10,000m women, 100m hurdles, 100m, 1,500m, 200m, 20km walk, 3,000m steeplechase, 400m hurdles, 400m, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, 5,000m, 800m, discus, hammer, heptathlon, high jump, javelin, long jump, marathon, pole vault, shot put, triple jump.
Aquatics Diving, open water swimming, swimming, water polo.
Olympic and Asian Games Sports
Team Sports Baseball, basketball, canoe kayak, football, handball (beach), ice hockey, indoor hockey, polo, rugby seven, softball, sepak takraw, traditional boat race, volleyball, beach volleyball.
Combat Sports Boxing, fencing, judo, Karatedo, Muay Thai, Pencak Silat, taekwondo, wrestling, Wushu.
/ Far West Herald, Noemie Cruz and Marites de Jesus