THE country’s premiere varsity league will once again represent the Philippines anew in the 15th Asean University Games slated December 12 to 23 in northern city of Chiang Mai in Thailand.
Host De La Salle University confirmed this development to media as the Philippines tries to improve from its sixth place finish two years ago.
“We will field in entries in taekwondo, swimming, track and field and hopefully, basketball," said University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) president Bro. Bernie Oca.
The biennial meet pits Asean-member countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei Darrusalam, Laos and Cambodia, Thailand, and defending overall champion Malaysia in 18 sports.
The events on tap are athletics, badminton, basketball, beach and indoor volleyball, cricket, football, golf, karatedo, taekwondo, swimming, table tennis and lawn tennis.
Meantime, Oca said the UAAP is not yet keen to add new sports on its calendar like boxing, which was pushed as a demonstration sport by the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) since last year.
“We have received several invitations to include other sports but we realized that other schools have to build up their teams for other sports. We fully understand the situation. Again, it’s all up for the UAAP board to decide,” added Oca. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)