Hopes high for Phl in SEAG

Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco remains confident that the special training of a select group of athletes can push the country up the leaderboard in the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur in August.

Cojuangco told yesterday’s PSA Forum at the Golden Phoenix Hotel in Pasay City that if the Filipino athletes want to aim high in the coming SEA Games then they should aim to be number one.

“First place. If we can start implementing what we’ve put together, it’s not very far to be number one,” said Cojuangco, who was joined at the head table by POC vice president Jose Romasanta, SEA Games chef-de-mission Cynthia Carrion, SEA Games task force head Tom Carrasco, Representative and former taekwondo champion Monsour del Rosario and karatedo’s Raymond Lee Reyes.

“We did that before,” said Cojuangco, looking back to 2005 when the country hosted the SEA Games and was crowned overall champion.

To get near that goal, Cojuangco said they must prepare the Filipino athletes the way athletes from other countries train, and that include housing the athletes in a camp where they will do nothing but train and focus on winning the gold.

Cojuangco is close to sealing a deal with government officials in Iba, Zambales for the use of the Zambales Sports Complex.

“It will be the venue for the special training of our athletes. We have asked the NSAs (national sports associations) to allow us to select certain athletes that we will be giving special attention to. I want to get started,” said Cojuangco.

Carrasco said seven NSAs ( duathlon, triathlon, karatedo, cycling, wushu, pencak silat and sepak takraw) have so far agreed to subject their athletes to special training in Zambales once the agreement between the POC and the local government is sealed.

The Zambales Sports Complex has existing facilities for a handful of sports and has quality rooms that can house as many as 124 athletes.

Carrion is as confident that the program can produce the best results for the country in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.

“We want to send the best athletes,” she said.

Del Rosario, who was named chef- demission to the fifth Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in September, believes that putting the athletes in a training camp for two or three months will yield positive results.

“I really believe in that training camp. The athletes will stay there and be focused, and not worry about anything else. I hope the NSAs can take advantage of this because not everybody can experience this kind of preparation,” he said.