The progress of the country’s preparations for 2007 Southeast Asian Games and the fate of the Visayas leg of the Philippine Olympic Festival will be discussed when the Philippine Olympic Committee holds its general assembly today.

Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, the POC first vice-president, yesterday said the Olympic body will try to finalize the composition of the delegation to the SEA Games that will be held in December in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

“Maybe, we will try to finalize it tomorrow (today),” Puentevella said.

In a separate interview, Philippine Sports Commissioner Richie Garcia said there are about 350 athletes who have made the grade for the SEA Games, based on the criteria set by the SEAG task force. Some athletes are still campaigning abroad in a bid to clinch a slot in the biennial meet.

“The main criteria is that they have won either a gold, silver or bronze medal in the previous SEA Games or have produced a noteworthy accomplishment in at least a regional tournament that is also equivalent to the SEA Games to justify their inclusion in the delegation,” Garcia said.

“What is important is that we send a competitive team”.

The football and baseball teams have been stricken off from the roster for failing to meet the criteria.

Garcia pointed out that the baseball team, although the SEA Games defending champions, is not competitive enough, judging from its finish in the Asian Games in Doha.

“They still have the same players when they could have opted to develop young blood,” the commissioner said, adding that the team can tap players from Negros and Nueva Ecija to try-out for the team.

Football has only two wins to show in the past five SEA Games.

Puentevella is mulling to cut down the budget for each athlete by P10,000 to accommodate more athletes in the Philippine delegation.

But Garcia said: “What is the point of sending more athletes, if we don’t win”.

The commissioner, however, said the POC will have the last say on the matter.

He also called on the POC to act on the recommendations before September to give athletes ample time to prepare for the 11-country event, won by the Philippines two years ago.

OLYMPIC FESTIVAL

The Visayas leg of the Olympic Festival, aimed at discovering new talents for the national team, has been scheduled from Sept. 3-9 in San Jose, Antique but Puentevella recently hinted that they may be implementing some changes to improve the conduct of the program.

Also to be discussed in the meeting are the Philippines’ participation in the Asian Indoor Games and the Universead, a sports meet among Universities in the world. *CPT

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