The availability of vaccines for national athletes preparing to join international meets and qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics should no longer be an issue at this time.
Reelected Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino said this a few days before the training activities of national athletes resume.
Tolentino believes that the national government or private sponsors will be around to provide for the need of members of the national team to get vaccinated from the threat of the coronavirus transmission.
“Definitely, there will be sponsors for this, and the national government will be able to procure. It’s just a matter of priority,” said Tolentino during yesterday’s weekly online session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum.
With the Tokyo Olympics just around the corner, Tolentino is upbeat that organizers in Japan will also be able to provide some for members of the national delegation, and delegates from other countries as well.
Tolentino said this a week after the discovery of a new variant of the Covid-19 in Japan and that the Japanese government has imposed tougher restrictions, even enforcing a ban on non-resident arrivals.
Because of this, organizers of the Tokyo Olympics are bracing for the release of plans for a scaled-down Games this March.
The POC chief added that funding for the vaccination of national athletes won’t be a problem, since they are planning for the qualification around 20 for the Tokyo Games.
And this won’t even be an issue if the Philippines sends as much as 10,000 athletes to the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.
With the possible cost of a vaccine reaching around P1,000 per vial, Tolentino said a total of P10 million could be spent by either the government or private sponsors for vaccination.
And this is where the Philippine Sports Commission and the POC could come in provide the necessary support.
National athletes seeking qualification for the Tokyo Olympics and other major international meets this year are set to get under way at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna by Jan. 9.
Athletes in boxing, karatedo and taekwondo are among the first to undergo training after the agency made arrangements of a bubble-type of setup.
This will enable national athletes to get in shape again after spending almost a year in lockdowns, with some of them doing their training activities online.
The time spent in lockdowns has already delayed the country’s preparations.
“Aminin na natin, delayed na ang training ng mga athletes natin. Iilan pa lang ang pinapayagan, at hindi pa nag-start ang mga pinayagan. Iyung mga nakapag-umpisa ay nasa abroad na,” said Tolentino.
