The City of Ormoc will take care of the vaccination of members of the national men’s and women’s fencing teams when they come back to train for the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.
Philippine Fencing Association president and Ormoc City mayor Richard Gomez said this is what their local government is preparing to do, now that the biennial meet is drawing closer.
“Kami na ang magba-vaccinate ng mga athletes namin. Meron naman kaming allocation,” said Gomez during the weekly program ”The Chasedown.”
Gomez talked about the role that Ormoc City will play, a few days after the government approved the proposal to prioritize the COVID-19 vaccination of Filipino athletes and officials in relation to their participation in the Tokyo Olympics and the SEA Games.
The Philippines now has nine athletes competing in the Tokyo Games, scheduled on July 23 to August 8, namely weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, pole vaulter EJ Obiena, gymnast Carlos Yulo, boxers Eumir Marcial, Irish Magno, Carlo Paalam, and Nesthy Petecio, rower Cris Nievarez and taekwondo jin Kurt Barbosa.
So far, only Diaz and Marcial have been vaccinated and in their places of training in Malaysia and the United States, respectively.
The Philippine Olympic Committee has initially confirmed 626 athletes to the Hanoi SEA Games, which is imposing a “no vaccination, no participation” policy in the biennial sports meet scheduled to run from Nov. 21 to Dec. 2.
Fencer Samantha Catantan, who finished with a bronze medal in the women’s foil in the recent Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifiers in fencing in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is training in the United States.
Two-time Southeast Asian Games bronze medallist Nathaniel Perez will be among those expected to be Ormoc City for training, along with Noelito Jose Jr., a dual bronze winner in the 2019 SEA Games men’s sabre event.
Jyln Nicanor, who settled for sixth place after bowing to Lin Hin Wai of Hong Kong, 12-15, in the women’s sabre quarterfinals of the Olympic qualifiers, is also in the list of the PFA’s vaccination priorities.