THE Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) is burning the midnight oil to complete the meticulous task of determining the program of events in the 30th Southeast Asian Games the country is hosting in November next year.
And the task borders from scrupulous to painstaking.
“What we’re doing now is finalizing the sports—and particularly events—that will be included in the SEA Games program. After that, we kick off the preparations in full throttle,” POC President Ricky Vargas said on Sunday night after the awarding of cash rewards to the Asian Games medalists during the in-between games break of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup on Sunday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The task of scrutinizing every minute detail of the 30-plus sports lies on the shoulders of POC Chairman Rep. Abraham Tolentino, who heads the Sports Department of the 30th SEA Games Organizing Committee.
The goal? Include only events where Filipino athletes have the most potential to win gold medals.
The mission? On top of hosting what could be the “Best SEA Games Ever!” is seeing the Philippines emerging as overall champion.
“It’s tough, really tough. I have to meet with each and every competition manager of the sports on the program and ask them to be honest with their athletes’ winning potentials,” Tolentino said.
The POC will present the sports program during the SEA Games Federation Meeting late next month in Clark for approval. This follows the federation’s approval of the initial 30 sports during its first meeting last summer in Clark.
The SEA Games will be held in Clark, Subic, Metro Manila and Tagaytay City from November 30 to December 10 next year.
The sports are athletics, aquatics, archery, badminton, baseball/softball, basketball, billiards, bowling, boxing, cycling, equestrian/polo, fencing, football, gold, gymnatics, judo/jiu-jitsu, karatedo, sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, squash, taekwondo, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling/kurash, wushu, arnis, dance sport and muay thai.
The medalists in the recent Jakarta Palembang 18th Asian Games, meanwhile, received their cash incentives from the POC on Sunday night.
The POC gave P2 million for each gold medal, P500,000 for a silver and P200,000 for a bronze. The sports body sourced the incentives from the donations given by San Miguel Corp., MVP Sports Foundation and the PBA.
The POC incentives were on top of the bonuses the medalists got from the Philippine Sports Commission under the Athletes and Coaches Incentives Act, Siklab Sports Foundation and President Rodrigo Duterte. Ambassador to Indonesia Lee Hiong Tan Wee also donated P1 million to each of the gold-medal winners.