Subic, Zambales—With ‘Tisoy’’ no longer in the horizon, the Philippine rowing and canoe-kayak teams expect to add to the country’s gold haul in the 30th Southeast Asian Games here.
The Canoe-Kayak competitions will start today at the Malawaan Park, while the rowing events will be held at the Triboa Bay.
Philippine Canoe Kayak head coach Len Escollante is confident in acquiring golds in the events like 1,000-meter and 200-meter mixed standard boat as well as the 500-meter men’s.
“We are eyeing to win at least three of the six gold medals at stake,” said Escollante, who noted that the good weather and familiarity of the course will help the entire team.
“We have an advantage over the climate, the wind condition and the boats. We want to come up with a good finish and make the country proud,” said Escollante.
Today’s events are 1000m singles men’s elimination at 8:45 in the morning followed by 1000m doubles men’s eliminations at 9:45 and 500m Singles women elimination scheduled at 10:45 am.
After the elimination round, all the events will continue for the semifinal round then proceed to the finals that will start at 2 in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Philippine rowing team expressed its readiness to capture at least 3 to 4 gold medals. The competitions will be from December 6 to 8. National team head coach and Olympian Edgardo Maerina said the team is determined to win overall honors.
The Philippines will be led by multi-SEAG gold winner Nestor Cordova, the promising Cris Nievarez and top lady rower Melcah Jen Caballero, who made quite a splash when she won a gold in a prestigious event in Hong Kong last November.
