With facilities now available, members of the national water polo team are upbeat that they can sustain what they achieved in the recent 30th Southeast Asian Games.
National team member Roy Canete said this following the staging of the recent Champion Summit at the Conrad Hotel Manila in Pasay City.
“We hope that support continues for us in our training here and abroad,” said Canete.
He said this as the national squad shifts its preparations towards qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and for the biennial meet two years from now in Vietnam.
A venue to train is now available for the Team Pilipinas now that the swimming pools at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Vito Cruz and at the Philsports Complex are now available for use.
The national team, according to Canete, has been struggling to find a venue to train when both facilities went under renovation.
Because of this, they had to find other venues to train, using the facilities at the De La Salle University Dasmariñas in Cavite, Emilio Aguinaldo College in Manila, and those at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
The pool facilities were not that deep. But they still coped with the shortcomings, added Canete.
And they were even more grateful when the Philippine Sports Commission sent them for 11 days to Japan as part of their preparations.
Now that the renovations of the PSC pool facilities are done, the national team will be able to focus on seeking a 2020 Tokyo Olympics’ berth when it joins the Asia Water Polo Championships this February in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The national squad’s silver-medal finish at the 30th SEA Games has earned the team a slot at the tournament, which serves as an Asian Olympic Qualifying meet.
Only the top teams in the Kazakhstan meet will get to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.
A total of 12 national teams will earn spots to the games, with Japan, as host, gaining entry as an automatic qualifier.