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One hundred and 33 athletes that will be competing in 26 sports have so far met the requirements set by the joint Philippine Olympic Committee (POC)-Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Asian Games Task Force. PSC Chairman Ricardo Garcia, however, said the number could swell to as much as 360 after the final list of athletes, coaches, national sports association and POC officials, and other dignitaries are added when the Task Force submits the country’s accreditation on Wednesday to the Incheon Asian Games Task Force (IAGOC). “So far 133 athletes met the Task Force’s criteria. Already included are the team sports of rugby, men’s basketball, and softball,” said Garcia, who added that they will submit the entry by number to IAGOC on May 31. Garcia said NSAs can still make changes on their respective lineups until May 31. The Task Force has set a self-imposed deadline on August 1 for the entry by names in time for IAGOC’s August 15 deadline. “For example, golf submitted 24

Local bets Sofia Isabel Guidote and Elia Mariel Mendoza won silver and  bronze each for the Philippines in the recently concluded  International Skating Union (ISU) World Development Trophy (WDT) 2014  on Saturday at the SM Megamall Skating Rink in Mandaluyong City. The bubbly 12-year-old Guidote placed second in the Basic Novice A  girls’ free skate program with 36.17 points behind Democratic  People’s Republic of Korea’s (North Korea) Hyang Mi Ro’s 42.44 score.  South African Jaydean Brits settled for the bronze with 31.00 points. Guidote, who also attended the five-day training camp conducted by  world-renowned coach Shanetta Folle of Austria, also previously won  silver medals in separate ISU events in China, Hong Kong and Thailand  and a bronze in the Asian Open in Bangkok. She said that she’s happy to compete for the last time in the WDT as  she aims to join several qualifying events for the 2018 Pyeongchang  Winter Olympics. “It was fun and I met new friends. I saw th

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and Philippine Sports  Commission (PSC) will be holding the Walk A Mile event on May 11 as  a way to drum up support for Filipino athletes that will be competing  in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. PSC Chairman Ricardo Garcia said the activity will also be held  simultaneously in other member countries of the Olympic Council of  Asia (OCA) to create awareness of the Asian region’s  quadrennial sporting event set from September 19 to October 4. “We want to help [the Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee  (IAGOC)] create awareness on the staging of the 17th Asian Games in  Korea and also to generate support to all our national athletes that  will compete in the Asiad,” said Garcia, who is also the country’s  Chef de Mission. “This event will also inform our countrymen to support our serious  campaign to win at least six gold medals.” Four OCA officials and three IAGOC members will be attending the  1.6-kilometer walk from Ma

Surabaya is the top candidate for hosting the 2019 Asian Games after  the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) hinted that the Indonesian city is  capable of taking over from Vietnam, which withdrew last week due to financial concerns. OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, in an interview with  The Wall Street Journal, said Surabaya is one of the two final bidding  nations for the 18th Asiad along with Hanoi, Vietnam. The capital of  East Java lost to Hanoi during the OCA General Assembly in 2012. “Indonesia [Surabaya] does have a certain advantage. But at this  moment, there isn’t a specified candidate for hosting the 2019 Games,”  said Al-Sabah, who added that the new host city will be known during  OCA’s general assembly in September in Incheon in South Korea. Surabaya is one of the satellite hosts of the 2011 Indonesia  Southeast Asian Games with Palembang as the main hub. Chinese Taipei’s Kaoshiung City, in a separate report in the Taipei  Times, is also thinking of bidding t

Close to 1,000 female athletes joined the first Women's Festival of Martial Arts last week at the World Trade Center in Pasay City, National sports associations (NSAs) in arnis, boxing, fencing, judo, Karatedo, muay, Pencak silat, taekwondo, wrestling, and wushu conducted demonstrations and free classes to attract new athletes to join and try their respective events. Philippine Sports Commission Commissioner for women and gender empowerment Akiko Thomson-Guevara said she was surprised by the overwhelming support of the people. "The participants’ response was phenomenal. So many people came. We hope that his project would encourage more women to get into sports, especially in martial arts,” said Thomson-Guevara. “We’re hoping to help the NSAs discover new athletes for their national training pool. I won’t be surprised if a female athlete wins our first Olympic gold medal, especially in boxing since it is a brand new event.” Thomson-Guevarra added the PSC pl

Team Philippines  PLDT Home TVolution's first international stint  in years proved to be a learning experience. ROY DOMINGO Iraq ’s South Gas Sports Club mentor Khalaf Abdul Sa Alaa offered words of encouragement to Team Philippines PLDT Home TVolution after the nine-day Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championships held in Pasay City. Sa Alaa and his Iraq crew reinforced by imports Metodi Aleksandaron Amaniev of Bulgaria, Hungary’s Arpad Baroti, and Macedonian Aleksandar Itaftov twice defeated the Power Pinoys in the 15th edition of the annual club tournament organized by Sports Core and supported by the Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF). “You already have a good coach, a good set of players, venues, and crowd support. What the Philippines needs is a new training system,” said Sa Alaa after his club’s final match opposite Chinese Taipei in the ranking round. South Gas Sports Club’s seven-year mentor even suggested that PVF officials should hire a professional for

Female national team members will conduct one-day free self-defense classes and demonstration on April 24 where an expected 500 participants will join in the first Women’s Festival of  Martial  Arts at the World Trade Center n Pasay City. Arnis, boxing, fencing, judo, Karatedo, Muay Thai, Pencak silat, taekwondo, wrestling, and wushu are the sports to be offered in the one-day event organized by Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Commissioner Gillian Akiko Thomson-Guevarra. The program is part of Thomson-Guevarra’s Women Empowerment in Sports. “It is only a one-whole day affair that will not only showcase the importance of women in sports but also their help and contribution to the community,” said project director Atty. Jay Alano. National team members in judo, Karatedo, and Muay Thai will also hold sparring sessions and exhibition matches to show different  martial  arts techniques. National athletes in arnis, boxing, fencing, taekwondo, wrestling, and wushu will

Wrestling Association of the Philippines (WAP) Secretary-General Karlo Sevilla is hoping to scout future national team members in the 2014 Palarong Pambansa set from May 4 to 10 in Sta. Cruz, Laguna. Sevilla said the Philippines need a larger training pool after the country’s youth wrestlers went home with silver and five bronze medals in last week’s 7th Southeast Asian (SEA) Junior and Cadet Wrestling Championship held at the Ramkhamhaeng University Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. “Based on the results, we need to recruit more young athletes and provide them with better training conditions for international competitions. Especially those in the national team,” said Sevilla. “[And] with our sport's debut in the Palarong Pambansa this year, we are optimistic in eventually recruiting new young wrestling talents, who in the future will propel us to the highest level of wrestling in the SEA region and beyond. Sevilla added it will take WAP three years to develop a 16-year-

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has no plans of changing the format for the basketball tournament in the upcoming 90th season amidst the clamor to shorten the league after games stretched up to November last year. Calls for amending the basketball season’s double-round elimination format surfaced last year after it took almost five months before San Beda was crowned champions. Dr. Vincent Fabella, president of the season host Jose Rizal University, said what needs to be done is to find ways of improving the schedule of all the games. "As far as the format is concerned there will be no changes amid clamor to shorten the league after last season's unprecedented record of the basketball season reaching as far as the second semester in November,” said Fabella, who takes over the NCAA presidency and Policy Board chairmanship. "There were suggestions to split the 10 teams into two groups but we will stick to our old format, which is a double

Timothy Bradley Jr. will throw out the word compassion when he steps inside the ring on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) when he defends his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight crown against former champion Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The 30-year-old Bradley (31-0 with 12 knockouts) won the 147-pound belt over Pacquiao (55-5-2 with 38 KOs) in a highly-debatable split decision in their first meeting on June 9, 2012. He then made two successful title defenses against Ruslan Provodnikov (23-2 with 16 KOs) and co-Pacquiao conqueror Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1 with 40 KOs) in 2013. Bradley, in a RingTV interview, said he also wants to prove that his victory over Pacquiao more than two years ago is no fluke after WBO’s five-member panel found out that the eight-division world champion was the true winner of the match following a review of the video of the bout. He will put that controversial match behind him and will again be all business this

Michael Jay Javelosa has completed his three-year service playing for the country’s national youth team. Now, it’s time to fulfill a promise he made to his late grandfather and former Ateneo cager, Alfredo. The six-foot-four big man, who left Ateneo High School after being advised by its principal to transfer to Reedley International School for him to be able to play for the Philippine team, made official his return to the Blue Eagles’ nest. Javelosa is the latest blue-chip rookie that Ateneo has snagged during the preseason in the Blue Eagles’ serious bid to get back on top in the upcoming 77th University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), which will be hosted by the University of the East. The Katipunan-based squad, which missed the Final Four for the first time last year after 14 straight appearances since Season 62, already acquired former San Beda Red Cub Arvin Tolentino, and Hope Christian High School standouts John Apacible and Clint Doliguez along with

Manny Pacquiao has only a few days left before the world sees if his 22-month-long effort of trying to cleanse one of the worst years of his career is worth the wait. Pacquiao (55-5-2, with 38 knockouts) dropped a controversial split decision loss to Timothy Bradley Jr. in 2012, the first of two losses that the seven-division world champion suffered that year after being knocked out by Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez. “I’m not angry after the decision [Bradley fight]. The officials did their best, and no one is perfect in this world, and sometimes they make mistakes. It’s part of boxing. I wasn’t really bothered after the fight,” said Pacquiao in an interview by the Miami Herald. Pacquiao said that he would rather use Bradley’s (31, 12 KOs) consistent thrash talking as a motivation to prove that he still has the same finishing power that helped him knock out Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, and Miguel Cotto. “The more he [Bradley] says it, the more it inspires me to show th