SEAG champs strong Asiad prospects

The Philippine contingent to the Asian Games next year will most likely feature the Fiba-Asia runner-up Gilas Pilipinas, the popular football squad Azkals and the newly minted Southeast Asian Games champions.

This was the early assessment of Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia who will serve as chief of mission of Team Philippines to the Incheon Games in South Korea slated Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.

Garcia said the SEAG gold medalists will be given priority when it comes to screening the candidates for the Asiad  on top of the heavy foreign exposure they will get as part of their incentive for winning in Burma (Myanmar).

“Gold medalists in the SEA Games will be very much favored in Asian Games, they will undergo assessment and training,” said Garcia. “All winners will fall into that special group. They will be exposed to a lot of international competition.”

Garcia said the country has strong prospects in the athletics team which won six gold medals in the SEAG.

“These track and field athletes we have now are Asian Games contenders,” said Garcia who added that American coach Ryan Flaherty will also be on board to monitor the training of the tracksters.

He added that baseball, softball and even rugby may make it among the team  sports.