MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Sports Commission will shift strategy next year in pursuing the country’s bid for a first ever Olympic gold medal.

PSC chairman Harry Angping said the agency would first identify some 20 athletes with potentials to win a gold medal in the London Olympics in 2012 then send them abroad for training and exposure.

“We can send them abroad the whole time and support their training there while continuing to give them their allowances here,” Angping told the Inquirer recently.

He said the PSC could now afford to fund an extensive training for the athletes with the agency expected to settle its financial obligations to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation by yearend.

Under chair William “Butch” Ramirez, the PSC had named 10 focus sports where the country has the strongest Olympic medal chances and financed their top athletes heavily.

They are archery, aquatics, athletics, boxing, fencing, taekwondo, wushu, lawn tennis, shooting and weightlifting.

But Angping said the country could maximize its Olympic medal chances if they could identify the particular athletes instead of the sports.

He added that the agency would soon come up with a body that would help determine the Olympic-bound athletes. No mention was made whether the athletes would come from the 10 sports previously named.

However, Angping said the other national sports association would continue to get funding from the agency.

The closest the Philippines got to an Olympic gold was in the 1964 and 1996 Olympics when boxers Anthony Villanueva and Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco bagged silver medals.