For the next three months, national sports association officials should be ready to defend their choice of athletes to the Burma (Myanmar) Southeast Asian Games.
Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia yesterday said the NSAs tasked to capture medals in the Dec. 11 to 22 meet will sit down with the screening committee headed by the top brass of the Philippine Olympic Committee and the government financing agency for sports.
“We will call the NSAs to justify the numbers that they’ve submitted,” said Garcia. “These series of meetings with the NSAs will determine the final size of the delegation.”
Garcia and POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. will lead the screening committee to finalize the number of athletes two months before the SEA Games.
An initial list of 180 athletes and 61 officials from 28 sports out of the 33 to be played in Burma has been approved by the joint POC-PSC task force in the preliminary selection of athletes by number.
Dragon boat has biggest number of athletes at 30 followed by medal-rich athletics, which submitted 20 athletes.
Garcia said each NSA should present proof that the athletes they enlisted are capable of winning gold medals before the committee sends the final lineup to Burma organizers.
The task force has established a criteria that allows only gold medalists in the 2011 SEA Games and potential gold-medal finishers to join this year’s event.
Garcia said athletes grouped as potential gold-medal performers should prove their worth in foreign stints of Asian or Southeast Asian caliber before the final submission of names in October.
He added the NSAs should also scout the toughest opponents of their athletes from other countries to determine the chances of victory.