For chef de mission Julian Camacho, the country’s fortunes in the 28th Southeast Asian Games will boil down to a case of simple mathematics.
Camacho, also the treasurer of the Philippine Olympic Committee, said the medal-rich sports such as athletics, aquatics, shooting and gymnastics should be able to produce five gold medals each to assure the country of a good finish in the June 5 to 16 Games in Singapore.
Along with possible victories in canoe-kayak, rowing and dragon, Team Philippines could easily fetch 25 gold medals, he said.
“Simple mathematics. If this can be done, we could reach 40 to 50 [gold] medals,” said Camacho.
He added that boxing, taekwondo, wushu and other combat sports could also contribute three golds each to the country’s golden haul.
All told, the country stands to surpass its harvest of 29 gold, 34 silver and 37 bronze medals, good for seventh place among 11 countries in the 2013 Games in Burma.
“Our immediate goal is to improve on our previous finish, then we’ll work from there,” said Camacho, also the secretary general of the Wushu Federation of the Philippines.
Based on his group’s meeting with the national sports associations that are sending athletes to the Games, Camacho said many of them expressed confidence of winning five golds.
Thirty-six sports dangle 402 gold medals in the Singapore Games.
“If you count all the possible medals that we could win, we could be the overall champion,” said Camacho. “I hope they can all deliver.”