Only on the second day into the new year and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) has lined up two major international events up for the country’s hosting in late 2027 and early 2028.
A day after announcing the Philippines’ inaugural hosting of the Southeast Asian Plus Youth Games or SEA Plus YG, POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said that also hot on the calendar are the Asian Beach Games or ABG.
After email correspondence and phone calls with Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) brass, the country will be hosting the SEA Plus YG in late 2027, instead of early 2028, according to Tolentino.
The ABG, the POC chief said, will be in early 2028 but withheld announcing the venue.
“The Asian Beach Games will have its third edition this April in Sanya [China] so it will be two years after when we host the games in 2028,” Tolentino said.
He said that the two international hosting chores run in consonance with the Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC)—through its chairman, Patrick “Patò” Gregorio—intensified sports tourism campaign.
“We will submit both letters [of intent] to the OCA before its General Assembly later this month in Tashkent,” Tolentino said. “It’s a mere formality. After getting the official approval from the OCA, we’ll immediately be proposing to the PSC on hosting both events.”
Tashkent is hosting the important OCA activity that will also tackle Uzbekistan’s hosting of the 2029 AYG.
The POC and PSC are on the same page on the sports tourism campaign with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. setting into motion last year the multi-pronged National Sports Tourism Inter-Agency Committee (NST-IAC) which Gregorio heads.
“These coming international events fit well with the goal of the NST-IAC and we at the POC are remaining pro-active on these efforts,” said Tolentino, also the president of the national federation for cycling, PhilCycling, which is hosting the Asian Cycling Confederation Track Championships in March at the brand-new and International Cycling Union-standard Tagaytay CT Velodrome.
Tolentino said expectations are high for Filipino athletes’ participation at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics next month as well as at the Sanya ABG set April 22 to 30.
Also on the POC calendar are the Nagoya Asian Games in September and the Jeddah Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.
The SEA Plus YG are designed for athletes aged 17 and under who will compete in two mandatory sports, a maximum of 12 Olympic sports, maximum of five Asian non-Olympic sports and one traditional sport with up to six medal events.
Tolentino is the founding president of the SEA Plus YG which counts as members Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Timor Leste.
The “Plus” refers to at least one invited Asian NOC in other Asian sub-region for each edition of the Games for the purpose of providing added competition for the region’s grassroots.
