POC says Pinoy athletes have 'enough time' to prepare for 2025 SEA Games

MANILA, November 1 ------ The president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) said Filipino athletes will have enough time to gear up for the 33rd Southeast Asian Games that will be hosted in Thailand in late 2025. "There's enough time and there are more than enough opportunities," POC President Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino said during the SEAG Council Federation meeting in Bangkok. "Coming off our Olympic success in Paris and with the growing enthusiasm of our national sports association to make their marks in the SEA Games, our national federations and athletes have enough time to prepare and contend in Thailand," he added. 

The Philippines emerged as the best-performing Southeast Asian country in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris earlier this year, with two gold medals courtesy of Carlos Yulo and a bronze each from boxers Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio. The 33rd SEA Games will open on December 9 and close on December 20, according to Tolentino. Three cities will serve as hosts: the capital of Bangkok, Chonburi and Songkhla. 

A total of 581 events are programmed for 50 sports and three demonstration sports including tug of war and ultimate. According to Tolentino, the goal is for Team Philippines to participate in as many sports as possible. "If possible, all sports," he said. 

The Philippines finished as overall champion when it last hosted the biennial games in 2019, but finished fourth and fifth respectively in the last two editions in Vietnam (2022) and Cambodia 2023). Tolentino is encouraging  national sports associations to religiously adopt the tried and tested template that produced the country’s first Olympic gold medalist, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo, in Tokyo 2020 and double gold medalist, gymnast Carlos Yulo, in Paris 2024. "As they say, it takes a village, yes, it takes a village to produce champions," said Tolentino, referring to a squad of coaches—sport, nutrition, strength and conditioning and sports science, medicine and psychology—that helped Diaz-Naranjo and Yulo clinched their places in world sports history. 

Source: news.abs-cbn.com