WITH a modern high-performance training and a new sports science building set to rise inside the Philsports Complex in the coming months, athletes preparing for international meets will be able to focus on their goals of winning medals.
Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez said this is expected to bring hope to the expectations of many national sports associations, who want to see their athletes succeed in competitions outside the country.
“This is our hope, and we feel that by having this, the NSAs under the leadership of the Philippine Olympic Committee could set their directions,” said Ramirez during the launch of Philippine Sports Institute yesterday at the Multi-Purpose Arena, Philsports Complex in Pasig City.
The Brent International School campus is the site where the PSC plans to put up facilities for high-performance training, which is mostly weight training equipment.
Also planned is a sports science building, which will deal with sports medicine, sports psychology and sports physiology.
“There were many shortcomings for Philippine sports. But, there is hope for us. Not only to dream, to pray to hope, but to expect. And there are a lot of prescriptions for Philippine sports,” he said,
With the needs of elite athletes met, the government sports agency can now focus its efforts to identify young athletes, who can someday win medals in international meets.
They will do this by putting up around 12 to 16 training centers in the regions, starting in Davao del Norte, with the help of Gov. Anthony del Rosario.
Officials of the PSC, led by planning chief Dr. Lauro Domingo, said the continuity of the Institute will become more stable once Congress enacts its creation into law.
Training talented kids who are between the age of 8 to 15 years old will be the main mission of the PSI’s grassroots athletics development program.
This is a program which the national training director Velasco is developing while working closely with deputy director Dr. Henry Daut, who came aboard last October.
The PSI is expected to become the PSC’s flagship program in terms of talent identification.
Presidential sports adviser Dennis Uy was among those present during the launch along with Cabinet secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., along with former PSC chairman Philip Ella Juico, POC spokesman Joey Romasanta and POC president Jose “Peping”Cojuangco.
Also around were Congressmen Mark Sambar, Chiqui Roa-Puno and Jay Velasco.
Officials of the Korean Institute of Sports Science, headed by Dr. Park Young Ok, also came to Manila for the launch. (P. Atencio, MS)
