Decathlete’s Olympic bid gets boost

MANILA, Philippines — Hailed as Southeast Asia’s best all-around track and field athlete, Jeson Ramil Cid has a vision of himself competing in the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics.

American track and field consultant James Lafferty announced Tuesday that Cid, gold medalist in the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, will have a support team whose chief objective is to help him win a medal in the Olympiad.

Lafferty said Wong Chu King Holdings has taken the 22-year-old from Dingras, Ilocos Norte, under its care and provided him with a group of coaches, each of them with a specific task to mold Cid into a world-class athlete.

“We must reduce our reliance on public funds and involve the private sector,” said Lafferty, the general manager of British American Tobbaco which funds the training of long jump queen Marestella Torres for Rio.

He said Cid’s corporate godfather would spend around P160,000 a month or close to P4 million in his buildup for the Olympics.

Ranked fifth in men’s decathlon in Asia, Cid will have coaches Sean Guevarra (training), Carol Lee (flexibility), Harvie de Baron (nutritionist), Greg Stone (psychologist), Lafferty (strength and conditioning), a doctor and a masseuse.