Philippines set for one of tiniest Games teams

Saturday, 14 January 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

MANILA (AFP): The Philippines said Friday they would field one of their smallest Olympic delegations ever at the London Games with just five athletes set to represent the world’s 12th most populous nation.

Boxer Mark Anthony Barriga has qualified on merit, while each country must field a male and female competitor each to athletics and swimming regardless of performances, Philippine Olympic Committee spokesman Joey Romasanta told AFP.

The Philippines have failed to qualify athletes in other Olympic sports they have previously had representation in, notably taekwondo, Romasanta said.

The Philippines will attempt to get more boxers in at the last Asian qualifying tournament in Kazakhstan in April, but Romasanta was not optimistic.

“It’s going to be very slim,” he said, assessing the Filipino boxers’ chances there.

The country of 94 million people fielded 15 athletes in Beijing in 2008 and 14 in Athens four years earlier to try to break their Olympic gold medal duck. However none of them made an impression. After making their Olympic debut in Paris in 1924, the Philippines have won just two silver medals, both in boxing, and seven bronze. The last Filipino Olympic medallist was Mansueto Velasco, the losing finalist in men’s light-flyweight boxing at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Romasanta said he did not have the figures for the sizes of Filipino delegations to earlier Games. But press reports said the smallest Philippine Olympic team ever comprised four athletes who went to the 1928 Amsterdam Games.