MANILA, Philippines — National Sports Association (NSA) heads have expressed collective optimism that grabbing top overall honors for host Philippines in the 30^th Southeast Asian Games as highly doable.

This was the consensus of all the 42 NSA chiefs who attended an assessment forum called Thursday (07 November 2019) by Philippine Sports Commission chair Butch Ramirez who also serves as Chef-de-Mission of Team Philippines at Century Park Hotel Manila.

The biennial meet is slated Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, 2019.

The assessment on the country’s top medal chances seems plausible owing to the fact that as a host country, the Philippines will be fielding in with the biggest number of athletes ergo, more chances of winning out of the 56 sports discipline to be contested in the SEAG.

Meantime, out of the 42 NSA heads present, 37 claimed their medal projection particularly on winning gold medals on events the country is registered can be realized and would greatly push the Philippines into a lofty Top 3 overall finish.

However, it was gathered there are still 19 more national sports associations which have yet to submit their respective medal projection report.

The 2019 SEA Games has 530 gold medals up for grabs out of 56 sports categories and 63 overall sports disciplines.

It may be recalled the Philippines emerged overall champion way back in 2005 where it played host for the third time in the entire history of the SEAG.

The country netted a total of 112 gold medals in the 2005 SEAG, 85 silvers and 93 bronze medals for a total of 290 medals.

In its previous outing in the biennial meet particularly in the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEAG, the country took home a measly haul of 23 gold, 34 silver and 63 bronze medals for a total of 120 medals. (LO/IAMIGO/CNS)