PSC appoints nat’l trainer to oversee PH team progress

THE PHILIPPINE Sports Commission has appointed a national training director with marching orders to oversee the progress of the entire national team and make the athletes highly competitive overseas.

Marc Velasco, a strength and conditioning coach based in Hong Kong, was tapped by the government agency to lead the training program of the Philippine Sports Institute in an effort to produce world-class Filipino athletes.

PSC chair William Ramirez said Velasco would form a monitoring team of no more than 15 people to ensure that both elite and developmental athletes are training seriously.

“Marc will go around the country and the monitoring team will report every 15 days,” said Ramirez.

Velasco, former head of the Philippine Center for Sports Medicine’s strength and conditioning unit, was instrumental in giving Hong Kong its first cycling Olympic medal in the 2012 London Olympics.
He served as conditioning coach of Lee Wai Sze, who pocketed a bronze medal in women’s keirin, a cyling race, in London as well as a gold (500m time trial) in the 2013 world championships and a silver in the same event in the 2016 worlds.