PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee (POC) president Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino on Tuesday sounded the alarm barely three months before Cambodia hosts the 32nd Southeast Asian Games.
“Frankly, I don’t feel comfortable with the formula that the host country [Cambodia] came up with,” Tolentino told the special Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the East Ocean Palace Restaurant in Pasay City.
“They’ve tinkered big with the rules,” added Tolentino, referring to Cambodia’s decision to include events that are practically alien to the other Games SEA countries and exclude events where Cambodia has slim chances of winning.
For a country of less than 17 million people, Cambodia has lined up 608 events in 49 sports, far bigger than the 530 events in 56 sports in the Manila edition in 2019 and the 526 events in 40 sports in Hanoi last year.
But it doesn’t mean that the Philippines, this early, is giving up the fight for the biennial event scheduled May 5 to 17.
Tolentino said the POC will still make sure that the Philippines will be represented well in as many events in Cambodia and hope to match or improve on its fourth-place finish in Hanoi in May 2022.
“We’ll compete in all events in Cambodia,” he told the forum presented by San Miguel Corp., Milo, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), POC and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
“We will give them a good fight,” added Tolentino, who is also counting on newly-appointed PSC chairman Dickie Bachmann as the national athletes gear up for the Cambodia Games.
“It’s a good thing that the POC and PSC [Bachmann] want to go hands-on in our goals,” said Tolentino, also the president of PhilCycling.
Cambodia finished at No. 8 in Hanoi with nine gold, 13 silver and 41 bronze medals. It won golds in vovinam with three, petanque with two and kickboxing, wrestling and taekwondo with one each.
Tolentino said it will be very difficult for Cambodia to win the overall title.
“Based on their formula, they won’t finish overall champion, but they’re aiming to be at the upper half, perhaps second, third or fourth in the medals race,” he said. “So it could be a battle for fourth all over again.”
Besides the SEA Games, the Philippines will also gear up for the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September, Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games in Bangkok in November and World Beach Games in Bali.
“This will be our busiest year in sports,” he said.