In terms of athletic competitions
overseas, the Philippines never backs down from any challenge and is always
working to send representatives or delegations. While there is, for example, a
FIBA Asia Cup as well as the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo to worry about this
year, Filipino sportsmen and their organizing sponsors are always planning
ahead. For instance, the next Asian Games will be happening next year, four
years after the last one in Jakarta and Panembang, Indonesia in 2018. The
country fielded a competitive delegation there that won some sweet medals and
placed 19th in the overall tally, and for 2022, the Philippines will
be trying to top that.
According to The Manila Bulletin, of the 61 sporting events scheduled for
contention in the 2022 Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China, the
Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) is looking to assemble athletes for 46 of them.
POC president Bambol Tolentino has high hopes for Filipino competitors in the
upcoming Asiad, which is rooted in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held in the
country, where the host delegation cleaned house with the medals. The
Philippines clamed 119 gold medals then, compared to the four from the 2018
Asian Games.
In a statement, Tolentino said
that the POC has submitted on Friday, February 19, its final list of events
that the national delegation will compete in next year. The high number, he
says is based “On our effort to surpass our last achievement of four gold
medals—in Jakarta—because we improved a lot in the SEA Games.” Filipino Asiad
athletes will find quite the mix of events to compete in at Hangzhou, from the
expected Olympic sports to other, sometimes esoteric, disciplines as well.
For example, men’s basketball
(regular and 3x3 versions), boxing, aquatic sports, baseball, softball,
archery, and cycling (MTB and BMX types) are old hat with many athletes. There
are also men’s football, rugby sevens and dragon boat, equestrian, judo, ju-jitsu,
golf, canoe-kayak and rowing, gymnastics (artistic and rhythmic), fencing,
tennis, squash, triathlon and modern pentathlon, board games (chess and
xiangqi), men’s and women’s volleyball and beach volleyball, weightlifting,
wrestling, taekwondo and wushu.
Then there are the more singular
events like sports climbing, speak takraw, shooting, and even skateboarding,
breakdancing and e-sports. Preparations for the Asiad are being undertaken now,
says the PH chief-of-mission Jose Raul Canlas, because 2022 is the next Presidential
Elections, leaving the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) on transition.
Filipino, or rather Filipina,
athletes were among the stars of the country’s 2018 Asian Games adventure. Gold
medals were had by weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, skateboarder Margielyn Didal, and
golfer Yuka Saso, to name a few.
Image courtesy of China Daily
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