THE Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) will appeal the inclusion of at least more 70 events across different sports to the 2017 Malaysia Southeast Asian Games calendar.
The number was determined after a meeting with several national sports associations (NSAs) on Wednesday, according to POC chairman Tom Carrasco, following the release of the initial list approved by Malaysian organizers that only had 342 events from 34 sports for the 2017 of the biennial games.
This limited list excluded some events where the Philippines is considered a strong contender for the gold medal, like triathlon, judo, among others. And this decision has prompted the NSAs through the POC to appeal for reinclusion and the addition of more events not on the orginal list, according to Carrasco.
"We will finalize the summary and formalize our appeal. We are appealing for 70-80 more events," said Carrasco on Thursday during the weekly POC radio program on Sports Radio.
"We are quite optimisitc kasi 342 events pa lang. Baka eventually maging 400 events. Maybe about 40 to 50 ang idadagdag," he added.
The 34 sports initially approved are athletics, aquatics, archery, badminton, basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, equestrian, football and futsal, golf, gymnastics, hockey, ice hockey, ice skating, karate, lawn bowls, netball, pencak silat, petanque, rugby 7s, sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, snooker and billiards, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, tenpin bowling, volleyball (indoor), water ski, weightlifting, and wushu.
The NSAs of fencing, rowing, canoe kayak, triathlon, judo, and wrestling are lobbying to be included, while athletics, archery, billiards, boxing, cycling, rugby, wushu, and volleyball (beach) are looking to add more events.
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