SEA Games-bound delegation trimmed

MANILA—From 650 to 420.

The Southeast Asian Games secretariat made some headway in its task to prune down the bloated contingent of national athletes seeing action in the Indonesia SEA Games from November 11 to 25.

This was confirmed by SEA Games co-deputy chief of mission Julian Camacho, who Wednesday bared that the number could still be reduced to fit into the P30 million budget earmarked by the Philippine Sports Commission for the actual SEAG participation.

“We will see how we can decrease it some more,” said Camacho. “We are talking one-on-one with the national sports associations and we told them we want only those who are the best in the sport.”

With no criteria in selection, the number of athletes ballooned to 900 the past months, prompting the Philippine Olympic Committee to create four cluster groups that will scrutinize the lineup of each of the 42 NSAs competing in the biennial event.

Last Tuesday, PSC chair Richie Garcia said they will prioritize the gold medalists in the past SEA Games but mentioned that there were still 650 names in the cutting board.

Though Camacho didn’t mention it, major cuts were reportedly made in team sports like volleyball, baseball, and futsal. Camacho, the wushu chief, said those NSAs are still being considered.

Futsal has 12-player teams in men’s and women’s, excluding officials, while baseball is still pending because of unsettled leadership question within the Philippine Amateur Baseball Association.