VIENTIANE, Laos — The 25th Southeast Asian Games fire off Wednesday with the Philippines favored to win its first gold medal in taekwondo.

After falling to sixth place in the overall tally two years ago, the Filipinos are hoping to improve their standing despite the reduced number of sports and events.

From 41 sports in Thailand, this year’s Games feature 25 sports with the Filipinos seeing action in all but three disciplines.

The Filipinos are expected to perform well in aquatics, athletics, taekwondo and boxing.

Gold medal forecasts vary with the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) eyeing to surpass the 41-gold production two years ago in Thailand.

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), the government sports agency, sees a modest haul of 20 gold medals.

Despite the much-publicized feud between the POC and PSC, Filipino athletes are largely unaffected and go about their business of preparing for the difficult tasks ahead.

The Philippines has already won a silver medal in water polo and has been assured of two bronzes in sepak takraw.

Hours before the lavish opening ceremonies at the spanking 20,000-seat National Stadium, poomsae, taekwondo’s form competition, makes its debut at the Booyong gymnasium at National University with world champions Rani Ann Ortega, Camille Alarilla, and Janice Lagman favored to take the women’s team title.

Less than a week since claiming the world title in Cairo, Egypt, the celebrated cousins are expected to get stiff challenge from Vietnam, the team it narrowly beat for the gold medal.

RP coach Igor Mella said team morale is high.

“Even the men’s team has a good chance to win,” said Mella.

The men’s squad is composed of Jean Pierre Sabido, Brian Alan Sabido, and Anthony Ray Matias. Mella’s concern is limited to officiating.

“Since judging is subjective, we can never be sure. But if we execute well, there should be no problem,” he said.

The Vietnamese trio of Nguyen Thi Thu Ngan, Duong Thi Huynh Mai and Chau Tuyet Van showed up early Tuesday for practice at the gym together with coach Nguyen Thanh Huy who gives his team a 50-50 chance.

“It all depends on execution,” said Nguyen in his best English.

Vietnam is the world champion in the men’s event.

Nguyen said the men’s team did not fare well in the preliminaries and semifinals in Cairo, but did a fantastic job in the final to capture the gold medal.