Filipinos seek first-ever Asian Beach Games gold

The Philippines will pin its hope on three events to break its golden drought in the Asian Beach Games slated Nov. 14 to 23 in Phuket, Thailand.

Philippine chief of mission Richard Gomez said the elusive victory could come in muay, jet ski or windsurfing although the actor-sportsman, who is the president of the Philippine Fencing Association, said he also expects strong performances from the rest of the 77 athletes who will compete in 16 sports.

“We’re always hopeful that we can bring home more medals as compared to the last beach games,” said Gomez. “We have a big chance of landing the gold in three events. But then again, this is sports. It’s difficult to make promises.”

Filipinos only have four silver medals and 10 bronzes to show since the biennial meet began in 2008 in Bali, Indonesia.

Southeast Asian Games medalists Philip Delarmino and Jonathan Polosan are the top bets in muay. Billy Joseph Ang is a solid jet ski bet after placing third in the world championship while reigning windsurfing world champion Geylord Coveta is a favorite in the RS Class.

Melissa Jacob, a remnant of the bronze-medal women’s 3×3 basketball team in 2012 Haiyang, China, has been tapped as the country’s flag-bearer of the tourney supervised by Olympic Council of Asia, the chief organizer of the Asian Games.

In the all-time medal count of the Games, Thailand is tops with a 38-36-28 gold-silver-bronze medal tally followed by China with 32-26-24, Indonesia with 32-16-30 and South Korea with 12-17-20.