PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee president Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino sees an uphill climb to regain the overall title in the 2021 Southeast Asian Games to be held in Vietnam from May 12 to 23.
PH forecast at 2021 SEA Games
Tolentino said the pandemic and budgetary constraints will make it harder for the delegation to repeat the feat when the country topped the 2019 SEA Games by winning 149 gold medals.
“Ang dami pong nangyari na mahirap sagutin po ‘yun,” said Tolentino on the question of whether the Philippines can defend the overall title. “Unang una, ‘yung pandemic, na-apektuhan ang training. Second, ‘yung budgetary constraint. Ang laki ng epekto nun sa training din and sa coaches,” said Tolentino.
The Philippine Sports Commission previously said that the SEA Games budget will be pegged in the vicinity of P200 million to fund the 584-athlete delegation. Tolentino said the budget will include the airfare of the delegation which will still be determined whether it will be on a chartered or commercial flight since there is no direct flight from Manila to Hanoi.
Tolentino added that the deduction of events from 56 sports in 2019 to 39 for this year will also make a significant impact on the Philippines’ output.
“Kaya pa rin natin i-defend pero uphill battle. Remember, we were overall champion. Sino ang nasa likod natin? It was Vietnam. Ang alam ko ang lamang natin sa Vietnam was 40 plus golds. Eh binawasan nila ng 30 plus golds na events kung saan tayo naka-gold. Simple mathematics na lang ‘yun. Tapos nagdagdag pa sila ng 30. You can picture out na. Talagang uphill battle,” said Tolentino.
Tolentino believes that the Philippines will also be battling with Thailand and Indonesia and will pose as a threat in the medal standings since their athletes didn’t stop training even with the pandemic.
“Tinamaan tayo lahat (pandemic) pero may bansa na tinamaan ng budget pero you can see how they give importance to sports. Kahit wala pang pandemic, nakita niyo ‘yung comparison kung paano sila gumastos sa sports compared to the Philippines. Ngayon pang tinaman ang budget, still, you can compare,” said Tolentino.
“Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, ‘yan ang maglalaban sa two, three, four,” said Tolentino.
But Tolentino said the Filipino athletes will definitely not go down without a fight despite the constraints.
“Malabo na siguro ‘yun (overall championship) based on our 2019 result. Ako ‘yung atleta, idedepensa ko ‘yung nakuha ko, ako ‘yung reigning,” said Tolentino.
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