TEAM PH TO SEND 661 TO SEA GAMES IN KL

Philippine Olympic Committee asked for P87M for the 498 athletes, 163 coaches

Team Philippines will send 661 athletes and coaches to the 2017 Southeast Asian Games (Seag) on Aug. 19-31 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

According to the list released by the Philippine Sports Commission yesterday, the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) has requested funds for a total of P87 million for the 498 athletes and 163 coaches who will be eyeing to improve the Philippines’ 6th place finish in Singapore in 2015.

The number, however, was way beyond what PSC asked for during the deliberation of the Task Force Sea Games, which was formed last year to identify who will be sent to train for the biennial games.

Instead, the National Sports Associations (NSAs) heads submitted entries in all events, except for cricket.

The Philippines will be sending 85 athletes and coaches in Category I (compulsory) sports, which are athletics and swimming; 502 in Category 2 sports (Olympics and Asian Games level events) and 74 in Category 3, or Sea Games level events.

Category 2 events include archery, basketball, badminton, billiards/snooker, boxing, cricket, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, indoor hockey, ice hockey, ice skating, judo, karate, rugby 7s, sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, tenpin bowling, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting and wushu while Category events include lawn bowls, muay thai, netball, pencak silat, petanque and waterski.

Aside from the athletes and coaches, the Philippines is also sending 70 support personnel, 29 NSA officials and 11 international technical officials.

PSC Commissioner Ramon Fernandez clarified that the government only picked the tab for NSA officials’ plane tickets.

Archery, basketball, tenpin bowling and water ski are the only sports that do not have officials in tow.

In 2015, the Philippines sent 472 athletes and 136 officials to Singapore, and produced 29 gold medals, 36 silvers and 66 bronze medals for the country. /