Proposed SEA Games Events to Affect PH's Gold Haul

Last year's Southeast Asian (SEA) Games here in the Philippines is proven to be one of the best SEA Games the country ever joined in not just because we were the host but more importantly, we dominated as Filipino athletes collected a grand total of 386 medals including 149 gold medals. Unfortunately, that number is set to drop if the proposed set of games for next year's SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam is to be approved.

In the 30th SEA Games, Kim Mangrobang completed a sweep in the triathlon event en route to completing a back-to-back gold medal finish. However, triathletes like  Kim Mangrobang will not be competition in Vietnam next year as Triathlon is one of the events that are not included in the list of proposed events for the 31st edition of the SEA Games. Also not included in the said list are skateboarding, sailing, rugby sevens, arnis, and modern pentathlon. While events like 5x5 and 3x3 basketball, boxing, cycling, chess, fencing, and taekwondo are included in the proposed list, the number of potentially dropped games will mean that Team Philippines is to lose 56 gold medals from the said sports that it won in last year's edition. More importantly, potentially dropping the said games from next year's SEA Games in Vietnam is a part of the Vietnamese government's precautionary measures to control the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).  

Fortunately, member nations are expected to appeal for the re-inclusion of the said sports as per Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) Secretary-General Edwin Gastanes who also revealed that the 11 member nations are to set to reveal and potentially finalize the venues and games included in a meeting on July 21. For athletes such as Kim Mangrobang whose event may be dropped, it's going to be another wait-and-see game. 

Photo is from Rappler