Olympic celebration festival opens in Philippines

MANILA, June 18 (Reuters) Cresenciano Sabal won the 10-km road race on the opening day of the sporting competition the Philippines is using to help with selection for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.

Sabal, a 27-year-old soldier, clocked 32 minutes and 47 seconds to beat about 800 runners in a traditional fun run at the start of the week-long festival to celebrate the founding of the Olympics in Paris 112 years ago.

''These events would give us a chance to test our preparedness for the Asian games later this year,'' Robert Aventajado, head of Philippine Olympic Committee, told Reuters, at the finish line of the marathon.

''We may even discover the country's future sports heroes in some of the games that would be played outside the capital Manila, such as aquatic sports, athletics, boxing and taekwondo.'' Around 7,000 athletes, including 120 from seven other Asian countries, will take part in the festival from June 18-25 and the main athletics event will act as a qualifying round for the Asian games in Doha in December.

The rest of the events, including boxing, swimming, bowling, archery and taekwondo, will be used to select Philippine athletes for the national training pool.

The Philippines won three gold medals -- in billiards, bowling and equestrianism -- at the 2004 Asian Games in South Korea, and Aventajado said they were also aiming for medals in boxing and taekwondo in Qatar.

''There's a very high expectation that we could do more than the three gold medal harvest we had in 2004,'' said Aventajado, adding that cash bonuses would be given to athletes who break national and regional records during the festival.

''Our boys and girls were highly motivated and really hungry for victories.'' The Philippines hosted last year's South East Asian Games and came first in the competition, scooping 113 gold medals compared to second-placed Thailand's 87.

However, there was little local celebration.

The Philippine government spends a third of its budget on interest repayments on its billion debt and there is little money left over for sports facilities or promotion.

Despite the lack of cash, basketball, boxing, billiards and badminton are popular sports in the Philippines.

REUTERS AY VC1126