Magno making sure she’s ready to answer the bell

Irish Magno became the first Filipino boxer to make it to the 2020 Games.

Irish Magno’s daily routine of shadow boxing, skipping ropes and jogging while doing abdominal and core strengthening exercises in between has kept her in fighting form throughout the isolation period.

Now that quarantine measures have been relaxed, Magno will slowly return to her old regimen of hitting punching bags and speed balls monitored by coaches Mitchel Martinez and Reynaldo Galido.

“I somehow managed to be in good shape despite staying mostly indoors during the quarantine,’’ Magno said in Filipino. She has stayed in a boarding house in Baguio City, along with several other national athletes, for over two months now.

“These workouts have kept me mentally focused and preoccupied,’’ added the first Filipino lady boxer to nail an Olympic spot through a qualifying tournament in Amman, Jordan, early March.

Busy honing her skills, the flyweight from Janiuay, Iloilo, remains steadfast in her objective to win a medal in the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics next year amid reports of uncertainty due to the coronavirus health crisis.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been getting feedback from IOC representatives from different nations on how their respective countries have been dealing with the pandemic.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol’’ Tolentino said Japan’s Olympic hosting rests on the availability of a vaccine to combat a possible outbreak during the Games where 11,000 athletes are expected from 206 countries.

“I hope it (COVID-19) will not be a threat anymore by next year during the Olympics,” Magno said.

Postponed this year, the Tokyo Olympics has been rescheduled July 23-Aug. 8, 2021, but questions abound on how Japan would handle the hosting of the Games.
“For now, I will just work on the things that I can control and that is to train hard and prepare myself for the Olympics,” Magno said.

IOC president Thomas Bach wouldn’t say whether a vaccine was a prerequisite for going ahead with the Olympics, but was lukewarm on the idea of holding them without fans.

The IOC chief has supported Japan’s stance that the Games will have to be canceled if the dreaded virus, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands all over the world, isn’t under control by next year. INQ