PHNOM PENH. – With almost everyone accounted for, the Philippines braces for war in the 12th Asean Para Games unfurling Saturday at the Morodok Techno National Stadium here.
The 246-strong Nationals arrived in two batches Monday and Tuesday, with the team from e-sports, which will debut as a demo event, flying in tomorrow in time for the opening of the biennial, 12-sport spectacle in this Cambodian capital.
Walter Torres, Philippine Sports Commission board member and the country’s chef-de-mission, and deputy CDM Irene Soriano flew in a few days early, with Philippine Paralympic Committee president Mike Barredo and PSC chairman Richard Bachmann joining them today and Saturday night, respectively.
“It’s the biggest in the history of the Asean Para Games,” said Torres, referring to the country’s delegation count. “It’s really to get them going in the international scene since this is the starting point of everything.”
Torres said he was able to get a commitment from the squad in improving on the 28-30-46 (gold-silver-bronze) haul and fifth-place performance in Surakarta, Indonesia last year.
“If we make it to fourth, that would already be an achievement,” said Torres.
Athletics, chess and swimming should again carry most of the brunt of the country’s campaign after accounting for all 28 mints by the Filipinos in Surakarta a year back.
Coaches Tony Ong of swimming and Joel Deriada of athletics echoed the same target of eclipsing, if not replicating, their hauls of 12 and six in the last staging of this biennial competition.
