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Friday, March 29, 2024

PH intensifies bid to qualify for Olympics

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Heads of around 25 national sports association will meet with chef de mission Mariano “Nonong” Araneta and officials of the Philippine Sports Commission to determine the number of athletes joining qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Marc Edward Velasco

National training director Marc Edward Velasco believes that this will be a crucial meeting for the NSAs, considering that the Olympics is just six months away.

“It will be a crucial meeting. This would make up a good part of the Olympic program,” said Velasco during yesterday’s weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at the Amelie Hotel in Ermita, Manila.

The PSC has assembled numerous support teams for Olympic-bound athletes and those who are going to join Olympic qualifiers.

The groups assembled are composed of doctors, psychologists, physiologists and conditioning coaches, who will be assigned to specific athletes when they compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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Araneta and PSC Chairman William Ramirez will map out the support that the athletes are expected to receive now that these support groups are made available.

So far, pole vaulter EJ Obiena and and gymnast Carlos Yulo are among the early Olympic qualifiers.

And they will be needing the help of these support groups in their quest for glory in the Olympiad.

Velasco said Chairman Ramirez will be present, along with members of the PSC board and the Philippine Olympic Commitee Executive Committee.

So far, Obiena is now in the thick of preparations in Italy, while Yulo is now in Japan to get ready also.

More athletes who are dreaming of earning slots are now preparing to join qualifiers in the next six months.

So far, three-time Olympian Hidilyn Diaz, will be among 10 Philippine weightlifters who will compete in the Roma 2020 World Cup.

Diaz, who won a gold in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, will join the qualifier set January 27 to 31 at the Pala Pellicone in Rome.

Boxing will have a qualifier in China this February, while the associations of taekwondo and swimming are finalizing their plans.

Athletics is supporting the bids of female pole vaulter Natalie Uy, sprinter-hurdler Eric Cray, runner Kristina Knott, shot putter Willie Morrison and newly added marathoner Christine Hallasgo and Mary Joy Tabal.

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