Philippine delegation all set for Thailand Martial Arts tournament

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

A total of 160 athletes will banner the Philippines in the upcoming sixth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) to be held in Bangkok and Chonburi in Thailand.

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) confirmed that team PH will be joining 21 out of the 31 events of the continental tournament.

“We have put together a delegation whose members are all potential for the medals,” said POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.

The delegation is also seeking a huge bounce back from their 2017 performance where they finished 19th overall with a total medal tally of two golds, 14 silvers, and 14 bronze medals.

“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.

Among the AIMAG competitions that the PH team will be participating in are: wrestling, taekwondo, sambo, sepak takraw, shooting, skateboarding, aquatics, 3×3 basketball, esports, indoor athletics, chess, dance sports, billiards, indoor rowing, jiu-jitsu, karate, kickboxing, kurash, muay, bowling, and pencak silat.

45 countries will be vying for AIMAG supremacy from March 10 to 20, 2022 including top participant China with the all-time medals won of 419.