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Filipino athletes set to arrive for Indonesia SEA Games


Filipino athletes are starting to arrive in Indonesia with 61 bets, including officials, arriving in Jakarta on Wednesday, two days before the urn burns for the 26th Southeast Asian Games. A 27-member taekwondo contingent of 17 athletes, five coaches, four technical officials and a team manager head the first group from the 747-strong Team Philippines. Equestrienne Diego Lorenzo and Michelle Barrera, and team manager, 2002 Asian Games gold medallist Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski, as well as 12 rowers and a nine-member medical team of doctors, masseurs and physical therapists are among the early birds. Joining them are three technical officials in karate-do. But 72 hours before the opening ceremonies of the Games that is returning to Indonesia for the first time since 1997, accommodation woes still bug Filipino officials. "We are working double time to secure the our athletes' accommodations," said deputy chief of mission Julian Camacho. "Everything is confusing. I've talked to the Malaysians and they told me they went to three hotels but could not get a room." Twenty-one gold medals are stake in taekwondo, which will hold its technical meeting on November 11. Competitions will start the next day upto November 15. Sydney Olympian Benjamin Tolentino, now 38 and the still the country's top bet in single sculls, remains the most recognizable face on the rowing team, as well as fellow SEA Games gold medalists Jose Rodriguez. The rowing events will be held from November 14 to 17 on Cipule Lake in Purwakarta. Equestrian competitions, with six gold medals offered in seven days, start November 15 at the Arthayasa Stable Club in Depok town. Cycling offers 18 gold medals in track, road, mountain bike and BMX will take place in four separate venues. No Filipino cyclist was allowed to race in Laos two years ago because they didn't have UCI licences. But before 2009, during the term of then PhilCycling president Bert Lina, the Philippine cycling team collected seven gold medals since the 2003 Vietnam SEA Games. Track events will be at the velodrome in Rawamangun, road race in Subang in West Java, mountain bike in Gunung Pancar in Sentul City and BMX at Pantai Bende in a tourist destination called Ancol. — JVP, GMA News

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