MANILA—Olympic chief Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. refuses to make an honest projection but believes the RP delegation to the Guangzhou Asian Games could surpass its previous gold-medal haul.
Cojuangco said probable victories in boxing, chess and billiards could make the country top the four gold medals it captured in the 2006 Doha Asiad.
Boxing, billiards and wushu delivered those golds but the athletes responsible for these accomplishments are no longer around to defend their titles.
Boxers Charly Suarez and Annie Albania will head the six-man boxing team in the Nov. 12 to 27 games while Efren “Bata” Reyes, Rubilen Amit, Dennis Orcollo, Warren Kiamco, Rodolfo Luat, Roberto Gomez Jr. and Marlon Manalo are the big names in billiards.
Cojuangco said chess is also a good source of gold medals with Grandmasters Wesley So, John Paul Gomez, Darwin Laylo and Eugene Torre leading the cast.
“I don’t want to make any predictions,” said Cojuangco. “The quality of the participants are good but I’m not sure if the preparation is just as good.”
Cojuangco hinted that the taekwondo jins could also spring some surprises although one of its top bets, Marie Antoinette Rivero, was removed from the roster after suffering a knee injury that could take at least six months to heal.
“It’s really difficult to say where we will win gold medals because I don’t know the type of preparations being made,” said Cojuangco.
The POC chief stressed that conditioning and nutrition will play a crucial role on the preparation of the athletes.
Alex Ariza, Manny Pacquiao’s personal conditioning coach, is scheduled to conduct a seminar on Sunday afternoon for coaches of the 29 sports bound for the Asian Games.
“It (seminar) should have been done as early as three months ago for us to see the effects,” said Cojuangco.
“I hope the coaches will apply the things that they will learn from Ariza,” he added.
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