According to POC President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, the list was submitted to the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee last Friday.

“We based our list on our effort to surpass our last achievement of four gold medals — in Jakarta — because we improved a lot in the SEA Games,” Tolentino said.

With the Philippines dominating the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, POC is hoping to bring its success to the quadrennial games to surpass its record of four golds in the 2018 Asiad bagged by Filipina athletes Hidilyn Diaz in weightlifting, Margielyn Didal in skateboarding, Yuka Saso in individual golf and the trio of Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan, and Lois Kaye Go in golf women’s team.

Moreover, the Filipinos seized two silver medals courtesy of boxer Rogen Ladon and judoka Kiyomi Watanabe and 15 bronze medals — four in pencak silat, three in taekwondo, two each in boxing and wushu, and one apiece in cycling, jiu-jitsu, and golf.

Philippines ranked 19th in the continental sporting conclave.

For next years’ quadrennial meet, the country will be joining aquatics, archery, athletics, baseball, softball, men’s basketball, men’s 3×3 basketball, boxing, canoe-kayak, and cycling MTB and BMX.

Also included on Philippines’ list are dancesports’ breaking, men’s dragon boat, equestrian, fencing, men’s football, golf, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, judo, jiu-jitsu, kurash, karate, bridge, chess, esports, xiangqi, modern pentathlon, skateboarding, rowing, and men’s rugby.

Completing the list are sailing, sepak takraw, shooting, sports climbing, squash, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, men’s and women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s beach volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, and wushu.

Groundwork and preparation for the 2022 Asian Games were already started last week, said Dr. Jose Raul Canlas, appointed as chef de mission to Hangzhou by POC.

“We started working on the Asian Games because next year is an election year, so it’s transition year for the PSC [Philippine Sports Commission],” said Canlas. 

“I’m coordinating with [PSC] Chairman William Ramirez on how we are going to go about the budget right now,” he added.