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| Hidilyn Diaz, Yuka Saso, Lois Go, and Bianca Pagdanganan are expected to defend their Asian Games championships next year. Ivan Saldajeno (file photo) |
MANILA--While the Philippine team is getting ready for this year's Southeast Asian Games, the Philippine Olympic Committee has begun gearing up for next year's Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
The POC bared on Monday that Filipino athletes will see action in 46 of the 61 confirmed sports for the Asiad set from Sept. 10-25.
The Philippines will be represented in weightlifting, skateboarding, and golf, the sports where the Nationals captured all their four gold medals during the 2018 edition in Indonesia.
The team will also have representatives in boxing and judo, where silver medals were won, as well as pencak silat, taekwondo, wushu, cycling, jiu-jitsu, and karate, where bronze medals were clinched.
The Philippines also confirmed its participation in aquatics, archery, athletics, baseball, softball, men’s basketball, men’s 3x3 basketball, canoe-kayak, dancesports’s breaking, men’s dragon boat, equestrian, fencing, men’s football, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, judo, kurash, bridge, chess, esports, xiangqi, modern pentathlon, rowing, men’s rugby, sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, sports climbing, squash, tennis, triathlon, men’s and women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s beach volleyball, and wrestling.
“We submitted our list last Friday—the deadline—and we based our list on our effort to surpass our last achievement of four gold medals—in Jakarta—because we improved a lot in the SEA Games,” POC president Bambol Tolentino further revealed.
Dr. George Canlas, who was named chef de mission for the Asian Games, said that it is better to begin building up this year than wait for next year as the presidential election could slow down their preparations.
“We started working on the Asian Games because next year is an election year, so it’s transition year for the PSC (Philippine Sports Commission),” said Canlas. “I’m coordinating with Chairman William Ramirez on how we are going to go about the budget right now.”
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