Juico now looking at 12 SEAG golds for Patafa
From an earlier prediction of eight gold medals, the Philippine track and field team is now looking at 12 in the 28th Southeast Asian Games set June 5 to 16 in Singapore.
“We’re very optimistic. We expect to win at least eight golds, and even 12, to surpass the best gold-medal haul in the SEA Games, which happened way back in 1983,’’ said athletics chief Philip Ella Juico yesterday, hours before the national delegation was given a warm sendoff by Philippine Olympic Committee and Philippine Sports Commission officials at Philsports Arena.
Officials of the POC and the PSC feted some of the 466 athletes who will compete in 35 of 36 events in the Singapore SEA Games.
“Please don’t forget to say a prayer or two, that’s one thing we need very badly,” POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. told the athletes, who hope to rebound from the country’s worst ever finish of seventh overall two years ago in Burma (Myanmar).
Before the sendoff, the POC general assembly recognized the volleyball, netball and jiu jitsu national associations.
Juico said the 36-man track and field squad, which boasts Olympic qualifier hurdler Eric Shawn Cray, has a strong golden shot in the men’s long jump, shot put, hammer throw, pole vault, steeplechase, 400-meter hurdles, 400 meters, 1500m run, 4x400m relay, decathlon and women’s long jump.
