Quartered training for PH bets set

With two big international tournaments scheduled next year, Filipino athletes will be housed in a controlled training facility where they can reach peak form without distractions.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. yesterday said athletes competing in the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics and Asian Games will be quartered at Philsports in Pasig City where coaches can monitor their training and progress starting February.

Aside from focusing on strength and conditioning with the help of local and foreign coaches, Cojuangco  said the diet of the athletes is also a chief concern.

“We have noticed that athletes who went through the  program produced impressive results,” said Cojuangco.

“Come 2014, we’ll house as many athletes as we can afford,” he added.

The Youth Olympics, featuring the world’s top athletes below 18 years old, is set Aug. 16-28 in Nanjing, China, while the 17th Asiad will be held Sept. 19-Oct. 4, in Incheon, South Korea.

“We already have a blueprint to house the athletes as early as Feb. 1. We’re just finishing the renovation of the dormitories and cafeteria where the diet of the athletes would be monitored,” said Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia.

“It could accommodate at least 350 athletes,” he added.

Cojuangco also stressed the need to put up venues for sports deprived of their own training sites.

He said athletes from equestrian and bowling don’t have the luxury of a training facility they could call their own, to name a few.

“There are many sports which don’t have an exclusive training area, so we need to build those training facilities,” said Cojuangco.

Filipino sports officials were impressed by the ultramodern facilities built by host Myanmar in the recently concluded 27th Southeast Asian Games.

Burma organizers put up the sprawling Wunna Theikdi Sports Complex, a 20-hectare training center that could easily house 20 sports.