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FOR the Filipino athletes, the real battle for sports supremacy is finally at hand, and they begin their quest for greater glory when the 2008 Beijing Olympics gets underway from August 8 to 24.
Philippine sports officials refused to predict a gold-medal win, but they are certainly hoping of finally snatching that elusive gold this time and ending the drought since the country first joined the Olympics in 1924. Realistically speaking, it will be an uphill climb, so difficult that it's like scaling the Great Wall. Well, at least they are in the Games and stand a chance.
No less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao will provide the much-needed boost when they join the 15 athletes in the opening ceremonies on Friday.
Arroyo, Pacquiao and the country's top sports officials led by Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William "Butch" Ramirez and Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Jose "Peping" Cojuangco will depart Thursday for Beijing where they are expected to rally the Filipino athletes.
The main bulk of Team Philippines arrived in Beijing Tuesday reportedly oozing with confidence and ready to see action in the world's greater sporting spectacle.
RP chef de mission Monico Puentevella spearheaded the Philippine delegation composed of 11 athletes and three top officials.
The athletes who arrived were boxer Harry Tañamor; divers Sheila Mae Perez and Rexel Ryan Fabriga; swimmers Miguel Molina, James Walsh, Joan Christel Simms, Ryan Arabejo, and Daniel Oakley; weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz; and long jumpers Maristella Torres and Henry Dagmil.
Archer Mark Javier and shooter Eric Ang were included in the second batch to arrive in Beijing, while taekwondo jins Antoinette Rivero and Tshomlee Go will depart for the Chinese capital on August 11.
The PSC had spent some P30 million for the training and foreign exposure of the Filipino athletes, who were sent to different countries to hone their skills.
The Filipino athletes are champions in their own right like Molina, who dominated the last Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand and Perez, the 22-year-old lass from Davao City who is also a SEA Games medal winner and is the country's top bet in diving. But, to the Filipino Olympians, there's no greater glory than to strike a gold against world-class competition in Beijing.
The last time the country won a medal in the Olympics was when Mansueto "Onyok" Velasco bagged silver in the 1996 Atlanta Games.
The country sent athletes in the 2000 Sydney Games and the 2004 Athens Games, but they all went home without a medal to show.
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