THE Philippines stands to lose eight potential gold medals outright in next year’s 33rd Southeast Asian Games unless host Thailand reconsiders weightlifting, wushu, jiu-jitsu and karate, which have been scrapped from its 40-sports program.
“We already appealed to the Thai hosts the inclusion of weightlifting, wushu, jiu-jitsu and karate,” said Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, who led a team in the SEA Games Federation meeting in Bangkok over the weekend.
“And it’s not only the Philippines which appealed, but a majority of the members,” he added.
Thailand is hosting the SEA Games from December 9 to 20 in Bangkok, Chonburi and Songkhla.
Jiu-jitsu bets Kaila Napolis, Annie Ramirez and Marc Lim, wushu’s Agatha Wong, karate’s courtesy Jamie Lim and Sakura Alforte and weightlifting’s Erleen Ando and Vanessa Sarno won a gold medal each in the Cambodia SEA Games last year.
“We will lose a lot of gold medals if the appeal won’t be granted,” said Tolentino, adding the country will compete in all 40 medal sports but not in the demonstration sports of tug of war and flying disc or frisbee.
