Pilipinas hanggang 5th place lang ba sa 2017 SEA Games?

PINAKAMATAAS ang ikalimang puwesto lamang na makakayanang abutin ng Pilipinas sa 2017 Southeast Asian Games sa Malaysia.
Ito ang realistikong pahayag nina Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William “Butch” Ramirez at Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) head for SEAG Task Force Tom Carrasco sa inisyal nitong pagpupulong para sa magiging criteria sa pagpili ng mga atleta ng 29th SEA Games Management Committee.
“We are really dead serious on our criteria,” sabi ni Ramirez.
‘‘We might be arrogant to but we will be following the criteria for us to be as competitive as what we wanted to be. Right now, we will be pressed hard but the reality is that we could only reach as high as 5th place.”
Dagdag pa ni Ramirez tiyak na hahataw sa SEAG ang host team bukod pa sa Thailand, Vietnam at Indonesia.
“It is always hard to beat host Malaysia,” sabi naman ng dating POC chairman na si Tom Carrasco.
“The next challenge is Thailand and Vietnam. Then there is still Indonesia and Singapore.’’
Itinakda naman ng joint Task Force SEA Games ang criteria sa pagpipili ng atleta base sa kanilang nakaraang performance sa SEA Games na ginanap sa Singapore noong 2015.
“We will be looking at their competitiveness, or are they still a deserving athlete, still an active athlete and still their national sports association will stil have to justify their names,” sabi ni Raymond Lee Reyes.
Ikalawa sa criteria ay ang tagumpay sa internasyonal na kompetisyon tulad sa nakalipas na Rio Olympics, World Level, 2014 Asian Games, Asian Level, Regional Level at Asian Beach Games.
“All Rio Summer Games qualifiers are already seeded to the SEA Games, that is if they still want to compete or decided to focus on higher international event,” sabi ni Reyes.
Maaari ring basehan ang edad ng atleta at ang potensiyal nitong mamayagpag sa hinaharap. —Angelito Oredo