PSC chairman Dickie Bachmann during the SEA Games send-off ceremony. MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER
MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richard “Dickie” Bachmann set one goal for Filipino athletes ahead of their upcoming campaign in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia.
Without putting much pressure, Bachmann said he just wants the Filipino bets to deliver a better performance than last year in Hanoi, Vietnam.
“Let’s put it this way. [To be] always better than last year, that’s my goal, to do better last year. I know there’s a lot of sports that weren’t included but hopefully we can do better,” the PSC chairman said at PICC on Monday for the PSC’s send-off ceremony.
In the previous edition of the Games, the Philippines ended up fourth in the overall standings with host Vietnam coming out on top with 446 total medals while Thailand and Indonesia followed suit in second and third, respectively.
The Philippines will be sending 860 athletes competing in 608 events across 38 sports in Cambodia as compared to 656 in Vietnam.
Bachmann hopes having a bigger contingent would translate to more medals won. Last year, the Philippines garnered 52 golds, 70 silvers and 105 bronzes.
“I’m glad we were able to give the budget and spread the budget to all the NSA’s and sports. But hopefully, we will allocate better for the sports [next time].”
“PSC is supporting them [athletes] 110%. We’ve been meeting NSAs and athletes, everything looks good,” he added.
The 32nd SEA Games is slated from May 5 to May 17.