MANILA – The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has approved the resumption of training of Filipino athletes who are vying for spots in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Pinapayagan na ng IATF ang trainings ng mga atletang nais makalahok sa Tokyo Olympics,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a virtual presser on Tuesday. “But it should be held in a bubble setting.”
“Ang pag-conduct ng bubble-type setting ay gagawin sa pakikipag-ugnayan sa regional task force kung saan gagawin ang training at lokal na pamahalaan kung saan nandun ang proposed venue,” Roque added.
The POC, in its letter to the IATF-EID last September, said 19 national sporting associations still have athletes who are looking to book tickets to the Olympics which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among those athletes are from the events of boxing, cycling, gymnastics, 3×3 basketball, athletics, skateboarding, karate, and weightlifting.
So far, pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, gymnast Carlos Yulo and boxers Eumir Marcial and Irish Magno are the Filipinos who have sealed their places in the world’s biggest sporting competition.
Obiena earned his qualification after tallying 5.81 meters in a meet in Chiara, Italy in Sept. 2019 while Yulo sealed his spot during the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at the Hanns Martin Schleyer in Stuttgart, Germany in Oct. 2019.
Marcial and Magno, on the other hand, boxed their way to the 2020 Summer Games by way of the Asia Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Amman, Jordan last March./PN
