POC urges NSAs to step up

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) would like to see a full Philippine participation when Thailand hosts the 33rd Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in December next year.

“If possible, all sports,” POC president Abraha ‘Bambol’ Tolentino on Sunday from Bangkok where attended the SEAG Council Federation meeting that set the official dates, sports and events of the 9 to 20 December sportsfest that will be played not just in the Thai capital but likewise in Chonburi and Songkhla.

“There’s enough time and there are more than enough opportunities (for Filipino athletes),” he added.

A total of 581 events are programmed for 50 sports and three demonstration sports including tug of war and ultimate (freesbee).

The Philippines was overall champion when it hosted the games in 2005 and 2019 but finished fourth and fifth respectively in the last two editions in Vietnam (2022) and Cambodia (2023).

“Coming off our Olympic success in Paris and with the growing enthusiasm of our national sports association to make their marks in the SEA Games, our national federations and athletes have enough time to prepare and contend in Thailand,” Tolentino said.

Tolentino is encouraging national sports associations to religiously adopt the tried and tested template that produced the country’s first Olympic gold medalist, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo, in Tokyo 2020 and double gold medalist, gymnast Carlos Yulo, in Paris 2024.

“As they say, it takes a village, yes, it takes a village to produce champions,” said Tolentino, referring to a squad of coaches — sport, nutrition, strength and conditioning and sports science, medicine and psychology — that helped Diaz-Naranjo and Yulo clinched their lofty nooks in world sports history.