Philippines to send 160 athletes to 2021 AIMAG

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) on Tuesday bared that a total of 160 Filipino athletes will represent the country when it sees action in the 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) next year.

POC president Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino said they have assembled a delegation with a lot of potential in the tournament set to be hosted by Thailand from March 10 to 20, 2022 in Bangkok and Chonburi.

"We have put together a delegation whose members are all potential for the medals,” said Tolentino in a statement.

Tolentino said they remain positive that next year's delegation could surpass the Philippines' showing at the 2017 edition of AIMAG where the country bagged two golds courtesy of Meggie Ochoa and Annie Ramirez in jiu jitsu.

Aside from these golds, the country also plucked 14 silvers and 14 bronze during the competition staged in Ashgabat in Turkmenistan.

“The objective is to ride the momentum of the Tokyo Olympics success and surpass our two gold medals won in the last AIMAG in Turkmenistan in 2017,” Tolentino added.

Next year, the Philippines is set to compete in 21 of the 31 sports at the 6th AIMAG.

These include aquatics, 3x3 basketball, billiards, bowling, chess, dancesport, e-sports, indoor athletics, indoor rowing, jiu-jitsu, karate, kickboxing, kurash, muay, pencak silat, sambo, sepak takraw, shooting, skateboarding, taekwondo, and wrestling.

Originally, the tournament was slated last May but it was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

—JMB, GMA News