MANILA – Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Bambol Tolentino on Wednesday said the POC will plead to the Vietnam Olympic Committee (VOC) to hold next year's Southeast Asian Games just before Christmas.
"We will recommend that Vietnam hosts the 31st SEA Games during the latter part of the year just like ours," Tolentino said in a statement.
He added that the proposal was made so that all the Southeast Asian countries will still have enough time to transition from the Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed to 2021, to the SEA Games.
Last year, the Philippines hosted the SEA Games from Nov. 23-Dec. 11, including the games that were played before the formal opening of the games on Nov. 30.
The VOC initially set Nov. 21-Dec. 2 as the period of the 2021 SEA Games, barring the schedule of the sports that will begin before the formal opening. Tolentino agreed with the dates.
"We will support the dates," he said. "Those dates provide enough window from Tokyo, which could be in the July-August period."
The VOC is reportedly scheduled to meet the other national Olympic committees of the other Southeast Asian countries on May 20-21 in Hanoi to officially present how the SEA Games will take place.
However, there is no formal announcement on whether it will push through as scheduled or not due to the coronavirus disease pandemic, which already affected the Tokyo Olympics.
Aside from the Philippines and Vietnam, other SEA Games members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Timor-Leste. (PNA)
