The men’s football team gained qualification for the Aichi-Nagoya 20th Asian Games giving the Philippines complete participation in the sport after the women’s squad was among the early birds which made the grade to the 19 September to 4 October competitions.

Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino made the announcement on Monday as the country is bound to send its biggest delegation yet in eight editions of the quadrennial games with 443 athletes.

The Philippines had a record of 524 athletes in the 1994 Hiroshima games and 391 athletes at the Hangzhou edition in 2023.

“The minimum goal is to do better at these games,” said Tolentino, referring to breaking the four gold, two silver and 12 bronze medals in Hangzhou.

The entire delegation — coaches and officials included — could reach 700 with gymnastics still confirming the qualification of five athletes in artistic events.

Filipino athletes are competing in 38 out of the 47 sports programmed by the Aichi-Nagoya organizers, who set quotas mostly in individual and combat sports because of the hosts’ limited capacity to accommodate big delegations.

The men’s football team qualified after India withdrew.

“We’re next in line so we got the slot,” Tolentino said.