COMMISSIONER Ramon Fernandez will meet with key Philippine Sports Commission officials today to look at options that will enable athletes and coaches in the national pool to resume actual training amid the enhanced community quarantine in the National Capital Region and four neighboring provinces.
Fernandez , who is also the national team chief of mission to the 31st Vietnam Southeast Asian Games, said he would have an online meeting with acting PSC Executive Director Atty. Guillermo Iroy Jr., finance chief Merly Ibay, national training director Marc Velasco and
National Sports Associations affairs head Annie Ruiz, among others, to discuss the problem.
The athletes and coaches are supposed to resume actual practice on April 15 but this was postponed indefinitely due to the spike in COVID-19 cases in the NCR, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan and Cavite.
Fernandez said some of the taekwondo and boxing athletes working out and sparring at the Inspire Academy in Calamba, Laguna have been restricted to a regimen of physical fitness and conditioning.
“We are now doubtful if our request with the Inter-Agency Task Force (in charge of the COVID-19 pandemic) for the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and the Philsports Complex in Pasig will be returned to us because they might be used as quarantine facilities again,” he said.
Apparently anticipating this development, the national fencing and dragon boat squads transferred their training camps to Ormoc and Tacloban, Leyte, respectively, with the support of Ormoc Mayor and fencing chief Richard Gomez and Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez.
Virtually the national karate squad, including its Olympic hopefuls, is currently in Istanbul, Turkey training for the world Olympic qualifying tournament in Paris, France in June.
