By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
A MONTH before the start of the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA)Games here, wushu athlete Agatha Wong shared that she has been busy preparing and looking forward to winning another gold medal for the country in the regional sporting meet.
Part of the 12-athlete Philippine wushu team seeing action in the tournament happening from Dec. 1 to 3 at the Philippine International Convention Center, Ms. Wong, 21, said the target is to have her in tiptop form come the Games so she can give her best and position herself to a better angle to win.
Back in the 2017 edition of the SEA Games in Malaysia, the College of Saint Benilde product Ms. Wong got gold in the taijiquan event, coupling it with a silver medal in taijijan.
Ms. Wong’s impressive showing continued in the Asian Games in Indonesia last year where she won bronze in the women’s taijiquan and taijijan all-around final.
“When we compete, we always give our best. We always assure ourselves of that. In this SEA Games, we will give our best,” said Ms. Wong, who graced the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum, along with teammate Daniel Parantac, on Tuesday at the Amelie Hotel Manila as she talked about the kind of mindset the Philippine wushu team has heading into this year’s SEA Games.
She went on to say that they have been hard in training, even going to China to further enhance their skills.
“China has the resources that no one else does. We improved a lot during our training there,” she said.
Apart from Ms. Wong and Mr. Parantac, also part of the Philippine team are Jessie Aligaga, Arnel Mandal, Carlos Baylon Jr., Francisco Solis, Clemente Tabugara Jr., Divine Wally and Jenifer Kilapio in sanda; and Thornton Sayan, Jones Inso and Johnzenth Gajo in taolu.
The 2019 SEA Games is touted to be the biggest to be staged in the Philippines, involving 11,000 athletes and officials from the 11 member nations, 9,000 volunteers, 530 events and 56 sports.
Forty-four venues have been short-listed for the event scattered in different parts of the country, including the world-class facilities at New Clark City in Tarlac.
The last time the country hosted the SEA Games was in 2005.
