The Philippines will field a full delegation in the 20th Asian Games scheduled September 19 to October 4 in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, with hopes of posting its best finish in more than half a century.
‘We’ve closed at 419,’ said Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino referring to the number of athletes that will comprise the national team bound for the quadrennial meet.
‘There’s (a possibility) we’ll remove two or three or we’ll add one or two more, but the final number could be 420,’ he added.
The number is the second highest Team Philippines would field in the continental event, next to the 524 in the 1994 Hiroshima Games.
And Tolentino is wishing it could also translate into more gold medals.
‘We’ll see if we can break our performance in Palembang and Hangzhou,’ he said.
Of course, he was referring to the 4-2-15 (gold-silver-bronze) haul in Palembang in 2018 and a 4-2-12 harvest in Hangzhou in 2022.
If the Nationals end up eclipsing both, it would also be their best effort since pocketing seven mints in the 1962 Jakarta edition.
Their best finish there was 14 in 1954 in Manila.
Between Manila and Jakarta, the Filipinos snared eight in Tokyo in 1958 and just went down from there as they haven’t exceeded four golds ever since.
But Tolentino is optimistic that the frustration ends in Japan.
‘We’ll be sending our Olympians and world champions,’ he said, referring to the likes of Carlos Yulo in gymnastics and those from boxing, swimming, jiu-jitsu, esports and golf among others.
‘Remember, all these athletes went through the qualifying process and qualified,’ he added.