MANILA -- From a lean estimate of 50 in January, the Philippine Olympic Committee changes tune and is looking at the possibility of sending between 200-220 athletes for the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China this November.
Joey Romasanta, POC spokesman and chief of mission to the Asian Games, told Sun.Star that they will decide the final composition of the RP team after the executive board meeting of the POC next week.
“Perhaps after August 11, we will know the final list of those who will saw action in the Asian Games. We are looking at around 200 to 220 athletes. We’ll see,” he said at the sidelines of the send off party for the country’s representatives in the Youth Olympic Games Friday night.
Romasanta said the dragon boat team command the biggest number of athletes with 25 each in the men’s and women’s while the Smart Gilas developmental squad, the country’s men’s basketball team in the 16th Asiad has more than 13 members.
There are also representatives for boxing, billiards and snooker, athletics, chess, diving, dance sports, cycling, lawn tennis, karate, swimming, taekwondo, wrestling and wushu, among others.
“These athletes are the ones who qualified under our stringent process which weighs heavily on their performance in international competitions like the Asian Games,” said Romasanta. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)