PHL cagers make it to Asian Games' athletes village

GUANGZHOU—Filipino basketball players finally make their entry into the athletes village today after playing several tune-up games in the province of Guangdong while swimmers, taekwondo jins, and world-class cue artists fly in from Manila just in time for the grand opening rites on Friday at the majestic Hai Xin Sha stadium here. PHL's flag was raised at around 11:00 a.m. Thursday at the International Zone of the Games Village in a ceremony which Chef de Mission Joey Romasanta described as the Filipinos' pledge to renew their ties with 44 regional member countries now under the banner of the Olympic Council of Asia that took over from the Asian Games Federation. Pre-Games good fortunes, which started with the accreditation of two late entries in basketball, continued to flow for the Philippines as the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (GAGOC) permitted a total of 160 delegation members to join the parade, or 20 per cent higher than the provisional number given during the Delegation Registration Meeting held last Monday. “We are very lucky because this means that everyone who is here by Friday would be able to join the grand parade and enjoy the distinct experience," Deputy Chef de Mission Mauricio Martelino said. Martelino disclosed that on the eve of the parade, there would be a total of 154 Filipino athletes and team officials in the village. There are teams, however, that are scheduled to play on November 13 and thus opted not to join the parade which is expected to start at around 8 p.m. and be followed by a three-hour program. Among the sports scheduled for November 13 and where Filipinos are entered are swimming, basketball, billiards, canoe/kayak, chess, (regular and xiangqi), cycling, dancesport, artistic gymnastics, shooting, tennis, soft tennis, weightlifting and wushu. “We do not want our athletes to stay out that late because it will necessarily affect their performance on competition day," noted Julian Camacho of wushu. Filipinos will join 29 out of the 43 sports in the calendar of this sports event last staged in Doha, Qatar where PHL wound up with four gold, six silver and nine bronze medals. Action on the football field resumes today as Hong China plays Bangladesh, Uzbekistan meets the United Arab Emirates, Oman tackles Pakistan, Thailand goes up against Maldives, India tests Singapore, and Qatar takes on Kuwait. The Philippines has no entry in this event, which started as early as November 7. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV