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By Frank Calapre
, Correspondent
(Last of a series)
There are no more problems for the other venues
to be used for the 2005 Southeast Asian Games here since the
Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee, or Philsoc is eyeing
existing ones like the Rizal Memorial track oval for the 45 events
in athletics, the Philsports Arena in Pasig for fencing and the
softball grounds in Rosario, Pasig.
Venues committee chair Red Dumuk said that
Philsoc has identified at least 48 stadiums, gymnasiums and
coliseums, both government and private-owned, in Metro Manila as
possible venues for the Games.
Among them are the Makati Coliseum for
basketball and even the Cuneta Astrodome for other indoor games.
“There is no problem for the venues because we
have so many existing ones. We will just renovate them to SEA Games
standards. There is no need to build new ones,” Dumuk said.
Other sports like judo, karatedo, sepak takraw,
dancesports, pencak silat and chess will be held in Cebu City, while
Bacolod City will also co-host men’s football, volleyball,
weightlifting and boxing.
Breaking from tradition, the opening and closing
ceremonies of the SEA Games will not be held inside a huge stadium
in 2005. For the first time in the meet’s 41-year history, opening
and closing rites will be held at an outdoor park—the historic
Rizal Park to be exact.
The sprawling park located in the heart of
Manila was not only chosen for its novelty but also for convenience,
since it would trim immensely the costs on building a new stadium
for both rites.
“We have to hold the Games under an
environment of austerity to avoid putting a big burden on the
government,” Philsoc chair Roberto Pagdanganan said.
For his part, Philippine Olympic Committee
president Dayrit said that the SEA Games’ member countries
understood the country’s economic hardship.
“Sure, they all understand our problems, and
when I informed them about the opening in Luneta, they said there is
no problem as long as we can host it,” said Dayrit, who is also
the president of the SEAG Federation Council.
Aside from swimming and athletics, shooting has
the third-most events with 21. Gymnastics and wushu have 18 events
each, while tae kwon do has 16 and billiards, boxing, judo,
pencak-silat and karatedo have 14 each.
Other sports and their respective number of
events are archery (4), arnis (6), badminton (5), baseball (1),
basketball (2), bowling (10), canoe-kayak (6), chess (6), cycling
(12), dancesports (2), equestrian (2), fencing (2), football (2),
golf (4), petanque (6), sailing (11), sepak takraw (4), softball
(2), table tennis (4), triathlon (2), volleyball and beach volley
(4), rowing (9), dragon boat (6), weightlifting (8), lawn tennis
(4), squash (4), lawn tennis (4), bodybuilding (4), Muay Thai (4),
judo (4), sailing (11), table tennis (4), and wrestling (11).
With 388 events in a total of 41 sports, the SEA
Games next year will be the biggest ever in terms of sports
disciplines, although it has the lowest in the number of events
compared with the Kuala Lumpur Games in 2001, which had 420 for only
32 sports. It is also lower than the 2003 Vietnam Games, which had
450 events in 34 sports.
The biggest ever SEAG in terms of events was the
Jakarta Games in 1997, which had 490 in 36 disciplines, while the
lowest was the Brunei Games in 1999 which staged only 22 sports.
Pagdangan, meanwhile, is optimistic that the
revenue generated through tourism during the SEA Games period would
offset the costs of staging the meet, which is expected to draw
7,000 athletes and officials.
He also expects another 14,000 local and foreign
tourists would come to witness the Games, generating as much as P800
million in tourist income.
“If one tourist should spend $1,000, we will
be earning that much also in tourism revenues,” he said.
Countries participating are Indonesia, Malaysia,
Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Laos, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, East
Timor and host Philippines.
With national pride at stake and with the
spirited cooperation of government and private sectors, staging the
2005 SEA Games now appears to be more of a reality rather than a
dream.
Part 1
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