POC, PSC set tough criteria for Laos SEAG

POC, PSC set tough criteria for Laos SEAG

MANILA, Philippines - There’s no free ride to Laos.

The country’s top sports leaders met for two hours yesterday and agreed that even gold and silver medalists in the 2007 Thailand SEA Games will not be seeded to this year’s staging of the biennial event.

“They are only candidates -- not sure that they’re in,” said Philippine Sports Commission chairman Harry Angping after sitting down with his four commissioners and their counterparts from the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Angping said even those who landed in the top eight of their respective events in the Asian Games, and those who made it to the 2008 Beijing Olympics won’t get automatic slots.

“They are merely included in the national pool which will hold tryouts for the next three months. And by June, we will know who will undergo intensive training (here and abroad) heading to Laos,” he said.

Officials believe that winning the silver and the gold in Thailand or finishing in the top eight in the 2006 Doha Asian Games is no assurance that the very same athletes remain in peak form years after.

The strict criteria should significantly bring down the number of Filipino athletes going to the Laos SEAG in December as sports officials put premium on quality of performance leading to the gold.

“If we send only 10 athletes so be it. Remember we’re going there for the gold -- nothing less than the gold,” said Angping, adding that as of now they have no idea how many will make it.

“We were one in saying that this time we’re looking at performance. We are sending only the best,” said PSC commissioner Jose Mundo.

In 2007, the Philippines sent close to 600 athletes to Thailand, and won only 41 gold medals for sixth place (RP’s worst finish in the SEA Games) or a ratio of one gold for every 14 athletes in the lowest of regional meets.

But Steve Hontiveros of bowling, who represented the POC along with Col. Buddy Andrada of tennis and chef-de-mission Mario Tanchangco of sepak-takraw, said of the 91 silvers the Philippines won, 42 of them came in subjective sports.

The budget for the Laos SEAG was not tackled during the meeting where a monitoring committee to be led by Hontiveros and Mundo was also formed.

“We will monitor not only the athletes but the coaches and the trainers as well,” said Mundo. – Abac Cordero