24 SEAG golds not unusual for Philippines – Romasanta

One thing Filipino sports officials can learn from the recent Kuala Lumpur SEA Games is how to limit the expectations when it comes to gold medal projections.

Before the 493 Filipino athletes headed to the Malaysian capital for this year's SEA Games, sports officials predicted a gold medal haul of 50, which they hoped should be enough to carry the country up the leaderboard.

From sixth place in 2015 in Singapore (29-36-66), the Philippines hoped to move to fifth or fourth place overall.

But gold medals came in trickles in Kuala Lumpur, and at the close of the competition, a haul of 24 golds, 33 silvers and 64 bronzes kept the Filipinos stuck in sixth place.

It's the lowest output in the SEA Games for the country since 1999.

"Don't talk medals but talk of ranking. We remained in sixth place. If Myanmar overtook us then that would have been a bigger problem," said Philippine Olympic Committee vice president Jose Romasanta.

Chef-de-mission Cynthia Carrion of gymnastics projected 50 gold medals for the Philippines while Tom Carrasco of triathlon, who headed the SEA Games task force, was more conservative at 35.

But neither came close to what the Philippines had at the end of the day.

"The medal forecast raised the expectations of the public a little too high. There was a forecast of 50 golds and we won 24. Thirty-five would have been more doable," said Romasanta, who had been given word by his counterparts from the SEA Games Federation, even before the Games began, that the Philippines should get somewhere around 25 golds.

"The Malaysians had their own medal forecast even before Games began," he said.

Carrion said coming up with such projection, which she based on countless meetings with heads and representatives of the different national sports associations, was her way of motivating the contingent.

Romasanta said there's nothing wrong with that because sports officials should be the last persons to question the limitations of the athletes.

Even if he was told of the Malaysians' own medal forecast, the POC vice president is not the one to rock the boat because a forecast had of 50 golds had already been made.

Romasanta said all that was needed to be done was look at the history, the recent history.

"If you look at the history we won like 29 in the past two SEA Games," he said, also referring to the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar where the Philippines was seventh overall with 29 golds, 34 silvers and 37 bronzes.

"Therefore, 24 is not unusual," he said. —

Philstar.com