THE country’s track and field team will shoot for 13 gold medals in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, which will be hosted by the Philippines on Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.
Of the 46 gold medals at stake in the SEA Games, the athletics’ contingent will aspire for 13.
Cebuana Mary Joy Tabal is one of the medal prospects for the team as she guns for no less than a gold medal in the women’s marathon event. Tabal won the gold medal in the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.
“I’m excited for the SEA Games. I’ve been training hard to defend my crown,” Tabal, who’s currently training in Japan, told SunStar Cebu.
Before the SEA Games fires off, some of the country’s track and field athletes will get tested in the Test Event for Athletics on Oct. 26 to 27 at the New Clark City. The Filipinos will battle tracksters from Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam in the two-day event at the New Clark City athletics’ stadium.
“During the test games, I expect our athletes to be smart enough to get a good feel of their opponents’ real worth and how much more they have to do during the actual SEA Games,” said Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) president Philip Juico.
Twenty-four of the total 48 athletics’ events in the SEA Games will be played in the test events, each having 15 participants to ensure competitiveness.
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William Ramirez said the test tournament will give the Filipino athletes additional boost and exposure before the actual SEA Games competitions.
“Our athletes need all the exposures they could get to take the pressures off them. It’s part of the process to make them familiar with the competition. That’s why the PSC has been supportive of their foreign stints and training,” Ramirez said.
Leading the charge for the hosts is pole-vaulter Ernest John Obiena, the country’s first-ever qualifier to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on the strength of his gold-medal winning 5.81-meter leap in a Chiarri, Italy tournament on Sept. 3.
High hopes are also pinned on Fil-Am bets Kristina Knott and Zion Corrales-Nelson, who are expected to battle Vietnamese champion Le Thunh Chinh for the 100-meter and 200m dash. (RSC with PR)