A bold 10-slot target in the Olympics

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) is aiming to qualify at least ten Filipino athletes in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it was reported on Tuesday.

“Hopefully, we have 10 qualifiers. That’s our target. But better if it’s more than 10,” said POC president Abraham Tolentino in a report by Peter Atencio of the Manila Standard.

That’s either fat, bold or both, based on the record of the Philippine participation in the Olympics, starting in the 1924 Paris Olympics.

So far, the Philippines has bagged a total of three silver medals in the Olympics as its worthiest feats in the quadrennial world summer games.

Two of them were in boxing—in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The third silver was won by weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the country’s first medal after boxer Mansueto Velasco last won a silver medal in 1996 in Atlanta.

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There are questions on where the POC has based its projection, with the closest guess being the 30th Southeast Asian Games, hosted by the Philippines which dominated the biennial 11-nation regional meet.

The Philippines harvested a total of 149 gold medals, followed by Vietnam and Thailand, with 98 and 92 gold medals respectively.

Himself amazed at the strong soar to the top by the Philippines, from sixth (in Kuala Lumpur in 2017), President Duterte has vowed a special P100-million funding for the campaign in the 2020 Olympics.

Should the SEA Games, centrally a sporting festival that allows undue edge to the host country, be made to honestly serve as goad or road map for goals in an Olympic campaign?

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Anyway, for the record, the Philippines has so far qualified only two athletes to the 2020 Tokyo Games, namely gymnast Carlos Yulo and pole vaulter EJ Obiena.

Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who captured a silver medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, is in the process of seeking a slot in Tokyo next year. The national weightlifting association said it also hopes to send as many as seven qualifiers to the next Olympiad.

Still, the strongest hopes are pinned on the boxers.

“We are sending our boxers to the qualifiers in February and May,” said Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap) secretary general Ed Picson.

Leading the charge are Nesty Petecio, gold medal winner in the last world women’s tournament, and power-punching Eumir Marcial, a strong second in the last world men’s championship.

“Not to take credit away from other NSAs, we acknowledge the Philippine delegation’s amazing overall finish in this year’s SEA Games,” Picson said. “Abap however stands for its consistency throughout the year.”

Ratio-wise, Picson said they performed above par, winning 13 medals, 8 of them gold in this year’s SEA Games.

Still, a big boost for Abap is the appointment of a new world boxing body to supervise bouts in the 2020 Tokyo Games, in place of the International Boxing Federation (Aiba), which has been banned by the International Olympic Committee.

Aiba has been blamed for several controversial losses suffered by Filipino boxers in the Olympics.