Over 400 athletes are expected to be sent to the coming Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Rep. Abraham Tolentino said this after reviewing the list of athletes, who could possibly be sent to the quadrennial meet, slated from September 23 to October 8 later this year.
This number includes 143 athletes, who have won 58 gold medals and 85 silvers in the recent 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
“This is the number, after we checked the gold medallists and silver medallists of the SEA Games, and those athletes with Asian rankings and world rankings, and were not in the SEA Games,” said Tolentino.
The inclusion of Tokyo Olympic veterans Hidilyn Diaz in weightlifting and boxer Eumir Marcial, along with tennis star Alex Eala, athletes in softball, baseball, rugby, squash and archery, will help Team Philippines have a formidable delegation.
Tolentino talked about the PH’s coming Asian Games campaign, while giving an assessment of the country’s performance in the Cambodia meet during Tuesday’s weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
The POC chief noted that the Philippines’ 58-85-117 gold-silver-bronze medal has not only surpassed its performance in last year’s Hanoi SEA Games, which yielded a 52-70-105 output, it also almost matched the PH’s performance in the 1987 Jakarta SEA Games, which had a medal production of 59-78-69.
Tolentino believed that the Philippines could have gotten an additional gold medal in the final match of the 65kg women’s fighting event in vovinam.
But this possibility ended after the fight between Bui Thi Thao Ngan of Vietnam and Hergie Bacyadan of the Philippines went through three periods and one extra time and finished in a 6-all draw. It was resolved via lottery that favored the Vietnamese.
“Isang gold ang nawala sa vovinam, dahil sa draw na ginawa to determine the winner of the gold,” added Tolentino.
Incentives from the government are expected to spice up the Philippines’ celebration of its performance in Cambodia, according to Tolentino.
Around P787,500 in cash incentives await gymnast Carlos Yulo, who emerged as the the Philippines’ best-performing athlete with his haul of two golds and two silvers.
Yulo struck golds in the men’s individual all-around and parallel bars and bagged a pair of silvers in rings and team all-around.
The two golds yielded Yulo a total of P600,000, in accordance with Republic Act 10699, which states that individual gold medalists in the SEA Games will pocket P300,000, while silver and bronze medalists will get P150,000 and P60,000, respectively.
The 23-year-old Yulo also gets P150,000 for his silver in rings and an additional P37,500 for his silver in the team all-around, which he shared with five other gymnasts.
His teammate, Juancho Miguel Besana and Ivan Cruz both will receive P337,500.
Besana and Cruz topped the men’s vault and floor exercises, respectively, and were members of the silver-winning squad in the team all-around.