The Philippines’ hosting of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games will be pivotal to the direction of Philippine Sports for the next decade.
Looking at the gold medal tally for the games, the Philippines is currently in fourth place with a total gold haul of 918. Third-running Malaysia is just 330 golds ahead, and trailing behind the Philippines is Singapore with 894.
Moreover, the country is coming off a disastrous 2017 campaign that saw the Filipinos fall short of their 50 gold projection, bringing home just 23 to finish in sixth place in the 11-nation meet.
With the country reinstating sports like Women’s Boxing and Weightlifting, while bringing in category 3 sports that will most likely rake in gold for the country, Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas is confident that the home team will have a better performance compared to the Malaysia games.
“We’d like to improve our standing from seven to at least top three,” shared Vargas.
“If we can get the overall championshp, we will of course try to do so.”
The country last won the general championship back in 2005, bagging 112 gold medals.
