Eleven of 15 venues inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila and at the Philsports grounds in Pasig are now available for national athletes preparing for the coming Southeast Asian Games.
de mission Ramon Fernandez
The national delegation’s chef de mission in Ramon Fernandez said this after he was updated on the status of the facilities that are under the care of the government sports agency.
Fernandez said they will gradually allow training under a bubble-type of setup in the coming days.
“We will bring in all under a bubble type of training one by one,” said Fernandez after he and Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino had a virtual meeting with organizers of the Hanoi 31st SEA Games Committee on Tuesday.
Among those that are ready for use are the track oval and the swimming pool area of the Philsports Complex.
Fernandez said bubble training, instead of face-to-face workouts, will have to do for now after the government raised the COVID-19 status in the National Capital Region and nearby areas to Alert Level 3 last week.\
Under the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, the agency will not allow the staging of contact sports.
But there will be exemptions and this involves those done under a bubble type setup as provided for under the guidelines adopted by the IATF, Games and Amusement Board and the PSC, with the approval of the local government units.Fernandez said that athletes from the sport of wushu are the first to be allowed to undergo bubble training.
Last November, the agency opened its doors for the training of athletes in combat sports as among the first to use the PSC facilities.
Training was supposed to begin for the rest of the delegation in January, but the schedule was moved after Alert Level 3 in NCR was raised.
Among the sports disciplines which will undergo bubble training sessions are baseball and softball, taekwondo, table tennis, wushu, judo, wrestling, gymnastics, weightlifting and arnis.
