PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino is confident Filipino athletes have enough time to prepare for the 33rd Southeast Asian Games that Thailand is hosting late next year.
“There’s enough time and there are more than enough opportunities,” said Tolentino on Sunday from Bangkok where he attended the SEAG Council Federation meeting that set the official dates, sports and events for the biennial regional games.
Tolentino said the opening ceremony will be on December 9 and the closing ceremony will be on December 20 for the games Thailand is hosting in Bangkok, Chonburi and Songkhla.
A total of 581 events are programmed for 50 sports and three demonstration sports, including tug of war and ultimate (freesbee).
The Philippines emerged as overall champion when it hosted the games in 2005 and 2019 but finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the last two editions in Vietnam (2022) and Cambodia 2023).
“Coming off our Olympic success in Paris and with the growing enthusiasm of our national sports association to make their marks in the SEA Games, our national federations and athletes have enough time to prepare and contend in Thailand,” Tolentino said.
He said the goal is to participate in as many sports as possible in Thailand. “If possible, all sports,” he said.
Tolentino is encouraging national sports associations to religiously adopt the tried and tested template that produced the country’s first Olympic gold medalist, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo, in Tokyo 2020 and double gold medalist, gymnast Carlos Yulo, in Paris 2024.
“As they say, it takes a village, yes, it takes a village to produce champions,” said Tolentino, referring to a squad of coaches—sport, nutrition, strength and conditioning and sports science, medicine and psychology—that helped Diaz-Naranjo and Yulo clinch their lofty nooks in world sports history. (Malaya)