In an emergency board emergency meeting by the National Orienteering of the Philippines, NOP president Antonio L. Tiu announced the postponement of the National Orienteering Championship.
The event will be moved to May or June, or upon further notice from the Department of Health in relation to the outbreak of the worldwide COVOD-19 pandemic.
“With the safety of the athletes and team officials as our utmost concern, we decided to defer the National Orienteering Championship to a later date,” said Tiu, who is currently the chairman of the Philippine InfraDev Holdings Inc., the leading corporate construction company that is in charge of the Makati subway train system project.
NOP Secretary General Federico “Eric” Samson, along with co-vice presidents Leonardo Andres and Robert Milton Calo, concurred with the postponement in the presence of members of the NOP Board of Directors led by Maria Cecilia Sarmiento (treasurer), JC Clarito (Deputy Secretary General), Antonio Quiza, Romualdo “Red” Dumuk, Jean Maire Lucas and Abul Khair Bayabao and members of the Steering Committees led by Raul Ballado, Romulo Raytos, Genaro Villota, and Reymundo Nillama, Edgardo Galeno, Nestor Asido, Edmundo “Eddie” Ang, Jan Roldan Oriendo, and Joseph Sy.
Also, held during the emergency meeting was the traditional presentation of an official uniform jacket to Tiu, a symbolic act of recognition and respect to him.
The International Orienteering Federation is the international governing body of the sport with its headquarters located in Sweden. The site of the upcoming IOF General Assembly will be held in Denmark set for July 9 and 10 this year.
The IOF officially recognized the NOP or Orienteering-Philippines as its official member from the Philippines during a meet by the IOF Council Members last January 10 in Frankfurt, Germany.
The NOP is affiliated with the FESSAP, which is the only national university sports federation recognized by the International University Sports Federation.
The partnership between the NOP and the FESSAP was struck through the intercession of FESSAP president Angel Ngu and FESSAP Chairman of the Board Alvin Tai Lian.
With the agreement, the two parties are organizing a qualifying Orienteering tournament that will be the basis of the Philippines’ participation in the FISU World University Orienteering Championship that will be staged in Smolensk, Russia from July 14 to 18 this year.
Meanwhile, the Asian Orienteering Championship slated for May 2020 in the Republic of Korea was also postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. It will be rescheduled to July 2020.
In other developments during the NOP Board meet, Tiu also announced the designation of the following as members of the NOP Coaching Committee: Joseph Sy, Edgardo Galeno, Gladys Sia, Nestor Asido, Jan Roldan Oriendo, Sean Elijah Siy, Edmundo Ang, and Antonio Quiza. They are to oversee the NOP’s plans to take part in the Singapore Ranking League from June 12 to 14, 2020 that is being hosted by the Orienteering Federation of Singapore.
“We look for better days ahead after the coronavirus pandemic that has brought a lot of suffering throughout the global community shall have been successfully extinguished,” said Tiu.