The Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (Patafa) welcomed reports that six regular events in athletics have been reinstated in the official program of the 30th Southeast Asian Games, which the country will host this November at the Clark New City in Tarlac. Patafa president Philip Ella Juico said the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) made the right move of reconsidering its position of scratching the six track events because it would definitely not sit well with the international federation. In fact, Asian Amateur Athletics (AAA) secretary general Maurice Nicholas warned the Patafa, Phisgoc and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) that it will not recognize the SEA Games if the men’s and women’s 5000-meter, 10,000-meter and 20-kilometer walk events were scratched. Nicholas reminded that like swimming, athletics is a mandatory sport. Based on the rules of the International Amateur Athletics Federation, the entire program — or all 46 regular events — should be played in any international tournament, including the SEA Games, Asian Games and Olympics. “Kindly note that you are required to apply for the Asian AA Permit to organize the Athletic Events for the SEA Games 2019 which you have not done so,” said Nicholas in a one-page letter dated 16 January. “Kindly note that you will not be granted permit to run the Athletic Events of the Games if you do not include all the above events for Track and Field and Road Events of the Games.” But Phisgoc didn’t act on it, until recently when obstacle sports, which would be played in the Games for the first time ever, was relegated as a demonstration sport due to lack of entries. Juico said he was elated by the development as it saved the federation from possible suspension and the entire SEA Games from getting nullified. “I’m glad that they (Phisgoc) listened to our plea and gave everybody a chance to compete,” said Juico, a former chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission who is also a vice president and committee chairman in the Asian athletics body. “They had no choice but to include the six events that they previously scratched. Our international federations were closely monitoring the situation and our hosting will be in deep trouble if they insist on dropping these regular events.” Also included in the official SEA Games program was women’s water polo, which would replace women’s baseball af ter drawing only two entries. Based on the rules of the SEA Games Federation Council, there should be at least four entries for a sport to be played in this 11-nation conclave. With the six athletics events now officially in, Juico announced that this is going to be the biggest staging of an international athletics competition. They had no choice but to include the six events that they previously scratched. “We now have 50 events in total,” Juico said, adding that they have included two walk events and two mixed gender relay events to hike the number of gold medals at stake to 50. “The four events are new events. This is the first time athletics would play with 50 events so this is now the biggest staging of an international athletics meet.” Juico has yet to formally inform the AAA and IAAF of this development as he has yet to receive a letter from either the Phisgoc or the POC.