Preparations are in full swing for the athletes’ participation in the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam next month.

Mon Fernandez, the country’s chief of mission to the Games, said they are already ironing things out on the flights of the athletes heading to Hanoi in time for their respective events.
“We were able to talk to PAL (Philippine Airlines), nagdagdag sila ng 13 flights. Majority of our athletes via PAL. Several, maybe 141 athletes or a bit more, Singapore Airlines,” Fernandez said during Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association Online Forum.
“Medyo plantsado na yan.”
The country is sending 987 delegates to the biennial meet with 646 of those are athletes.
Fernandez also said they will confer with Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Bambol Tolentino within the week on how to go about the send-off of athletes.
The delegation’s medical team is also ready to make sure athletes are in good condition before and during the Games.
RT-PCR tests will be done to the delegates before they leave for Vietnam.
“We just have to be really careful with our athletes because last I heard, Vietnam still has 65,000 cases the other day,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez is also optimistic that athletes would perform well in the biennial meet.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed and we're hoping na makapag-perform sila sa highest level nila because hindi lang naman tayo ang naapektuhan ng pandemic as far as training is concerned. I'm sure ganun din problema ng ibang countries,” he said.
“We hope they will level up on their performances.”
In the 2019 edition that the country hosted, the PH team won the overall championship with 149 gold, 117 silver and 121 bronze medals.