ADDITIONAL events in billiards, chess, sailing, shooting and weightlifting can boost the Philippine campaign in the 26th Southeast Asian Games set on Nov. 11 to 25 in Indonesia, Philippine Olympic Committee Chairman Monico Puentevella said yesterday. "We got 80 percent of our requested events," said Puentevella, who was in Bali, Indonesia last weekend along with fellow POC officials Manny Lopez, Steve Hontiveros and Julian Camacho for the SEA Games Federation Council meeting where they lobbied for more events and changes in the game calendar.
Among the changes made by organizers was dropping the 3-meter springboard event in diving, replacing it with the 1-meter springboard events for men and women.
In billiards, the snooker events were scrapped and replaced by the men’s 10-ball and 8-ball men’s singles and doubles, while added were English billiards singles and doubles plus 1-cushion and 3-cushion carom singles. Also included in billiards were the women’s 9-ball and 8-ball singles.
Sailing was also a beneficiary of the Philippine lobbying, Puentevella said, with the inclusion of the men’s and women’s Laser, 470, RSX and Mistral events, while the individual standard event was added in chess.
In shooting, the men’s and women’s 50-meter 3-position, 25-meter women’s individual pistol, 25-meter men’s rapid fire and women’s running target events were approved, along with the men’s 69-kilogram weightlifting contest.
Puentevella, however, added wushu sanshou (sparring) events were trimmed down to a maximum of 18 to 15 entries. On the other hand, the men’s weight divisions were modified to 49, 52, 60, 64, 69 and 75 and 81-kilogram weights, he said.
"With these changes, I believe we have a good chance of fighting for at least second overall," said Puentevella, who virtually conceded the overall championship to the Indons who have stacked the meet’s calendar in their favor.
He anticipated a three-way battle among Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines for runner-up honors.
"But who knows, we might still pull off an upset," he said.
The Philippines finished fifth overall in the 2009 Laos SEA Games with a haul of 33 gold, 35 silver and 51 bronze medals.
Puentevella noted that in agreeing to the added events, the organizers insisted no extra funds would be spent for their inclusion and no new venues would be built for them.
Bong Pedralvez, Business Malaya Insight
