THINGS started in earnest at the Team Philippines training camp in Metz last Sunday with Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino and Chef de Mission Jonvic Remulla doing the rounds at the all-in facility where Filipino athletes competing in the Olympics will buckle down to work for a month.
“It’s all systems go here at La Moselle,” Tolentino said, adding “the morale of the team is very high.”
This marks the first time the POC is conducting a training camp for Olympic athletes a month before the competition starts on July 26.
“The first batch of athletes that flew in with us here last Saturday morning is amazed with the facility and are eager to wind up their training for their respective events,” added Tolentino, who met members of Team Philippines with Remulla Sunday.
“The athletes are excited and enthusiastic about this training camp, the main objective of which is to make sure our athletes are in top shape for the competitions,” Remulla said.
The first batch of the 15 Filipino athletes who have so far qualified for the Olympics included weightlifters Vanessa Sarno and Elreen Ando, boxers Aira Villegas, Hergie Bacyadan, Carlo Paalam and Nesthy Petecio, rower Joanie Delgaco and weightlifter John Febuar Ceniza.
They are accompanied by POC secretary-general Atty. Wharton Chan, the athletes’ coaches and trainers and a lean POC staff who prepared the camp ahead of the team’s arrival and will be in France for the duration of the Games that end August 11.
Expected to arrive in Metz from different origins in the next few days are boxer Eumir Felix Marcial, fencer Samantha Catantan and gymnasts Carlos Yulo, Emma Malabuyo and Levi Ruivivar.
Team Philippines, according to Tolentino, would breach the 20-athlete mark with more qualifiers expected in athletics, golf and swimming–the sport’s international federations will announce the official qualifiers for the Olympics this week.
“The Paris campaign is now in full throttle,” said Tolentino, who, during his first watch at the POC in Tokyo 2021, saw the country winning its first Olympics gold medalist through weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo and the best finish ever by the country in the Games with Paalam and Petecio’s silvers and Marcial’s bronze medal.
