THE inclusion of weightlifting and boxing in the calendar of disciplines in the UAAP is unlikely, for now.
Reacting to the suggestion of Hidilyn Diaz, Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam, and Eumir Marcial, who won medals in the just-concluded Tokyo Olympics, thatweightlifting and boxing should be added in collegiate leagues, Ateneo athletic director and Board of Managing Directors member Emmanuel Fernandez said doing that is possible.
But not right now.
“Not right now. The current stand before the pandemic was that before we add new sporting events, all existing events should be played by the majority of the universities,” Fernandez told Malaya-Business Insight yesterday.
“It will be harder to add now because of the pandemic for obvious reasons,” he added.
The amiable league official said all Olympic sports should be part of the UAAP.
“First, all of the sports in the UAAP are Olympic sports. Boxing was part of the UAAP before, but I’m not sure when,” Fernandez said.
“My opinion on the matter is that, if possible, all the sports on the UAAP calendar should be part of the Olympic calendar.”
University of the Philippines College of Human Kinetics dean and UAAP Board of Managing Directors member Francis Diaz said national sports associations can propose to include their sports in collegiate leagues.
“It’s the NSAs who approach and make proposals to the leagues if they want their sport to be played, in our case, the UAAP,” Diaz said.
“Honestly, I don’t see it happening just because of the medal haul in the Olympics. Boxing was in the UAAP back in the 70s, no idea why and when it was scrapped.”
Diaz is convinced the addition of new sports to the league hinges on NSAs.
“I’m speaking historically, I was a coach of the UP varsity softball team for 23 years and I remember that the reason why we were reinstated in 1993 was because of the push of ASAPHIL. Throughout the years, the NSAs of golf and archery proposed but nothing came out,” Diaz said.
“What was critical back then in 1993 when softball was reinstated was that they supported each member university by giving a free full set of equipment to each university and they sponsored a series of coaching clinics.”
