Metro Manila, Philippines– Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Commissioner Ramon Fernandez expressed optimism that Filipino athletes will meet their goal of at least finishing in third spot in the overall medal tally of the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.
“We are halfway through the Games, and we are in the top three of the medal standings. We are well within our target of finishing at least third overall. We just have to maintain our performance until the end,” Fernandez, Team Philippines chef de mission to the games, said on Tuesday.
After four days of competition, Team Philippines collected 30 gold, 34 silver, and 44 bronze medals for a total of 108 medals.
The country is currently in third place in the overall medal tally, six gold medals behind second placer Thailand. Host nation Vietnam holds a big lead with 90 gold medals.
Fernandez added the PSC is closely evaluating the performance of the Filipino national athletes in the ongoing biennial sporting event to know what sports will they give much attention in the coming years.
“We have to look closely and evaluate the performance of our national athletes here so the board can act and budget accordingly based on our assessment,” the PSC commissioner said.
On Monday, the Philippines won 10 gold medals from bowling, gymnastics, dancesport, swimming, athletics, and poomsae.
“We still have several sports where our athletes can win medals, and hopefully they can deliver,” said Fernandez.
Still in the medal hunt are the country’s bets in athletics, archery, boxing, basketball, bowling, billiards, weightlifting, karatedo, taekwondo, wrestling, canoe-kayak, shooting, sepak takraw, muay thai and lawn tennis.
