Philippines’ campaign suffers as top athletes falter

PALEMBANG, Indonesia—The golds are coming in trickles in the 26th Southeast Asian Games and the once bright outlook is slowly shifting to a modest finish for the Philippine delegation.

Deputy chef de mission Romy Magat now believes the realistic target is just to surpass the Filipinos’ gold medal performance in the 2009 Laos SEA Games.

That time Team Philippines, competing in only 25 events, garnered 38 of the 372 golds dangled and landed fifth place overall among 11 competing nations.

At the rate, the 512-strong Filipino contingent is faring here, in Jakarta and in West Java, however, fourth place in the general standing now seems a tall order.

After three days of full-blast action, the Philippines has only scooped eight golds and needs to find a gold mine to move out of sixth place in the medal tally being dominated by host Indonesia.

“If we can do better than in Laos, then good,” Magat, secretary general of the Philippine Tennis Association, told Filipino sportswriters covering the Games Tuesday morning at the Aston Hotel, where the Philippine Olympic Committee secretariat here is located.

According to Magat’s projections, the Filipinos should be able to win 18 more golds from this South Sumatra capital serving as main hub of the Games.

Magat said tennis should contribute three, soft tennis two, weightlifting two, wrestling three (including the gold won by Margarito Angana Monday), boxing four, chess three and softball one.

Thus far, athletics has contributed two golds through long jumper Marestella Torres and steeplechaser Rene Herrera, wall climbing one courtesy of Ina Flores (women’s boulder) and taekwondo two through the women’s poomsae trio of Camille Alarilla, Rani Ann Ortega and Janice Lagman.

Before the Games started November 11, the POC and the Philippine Sports Commission were looking at a haul of more than 70 golds, with 40 possible in Jakarta, 30 to 35 here and 12 to 15 in West Java.

Even if Team Philippines fails to hit its earlier target, however, Magat said the training equipment the POC ordered for the training and physical conditioning of the athletes have arrived and will be available for use in the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar and 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Korea.