PSC evaluating sports facilities as training for SEA Games resumes

Facade of the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Philippine Sports Commission has been thoroughly assessing the facilities inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Center and Philsports Complex before opening their doors to the national athletes bound for the Southeast Asian Games.

Philippine Sports Institute national training director Marc Edward Velasco said they are checking out if the structures of these venues still conform to accepted standards nearly two years after they were abandoned by athletes due to the COVID-19 global crisis.

“We have been evaluating all the venues. Based on these evaluations, we will find out this week when would be the earliest possible time for our athletes to return to these facilities,’’ Velasco told the Inquirer.

Since March last year when the pandemic began, the majority of the national athletes from various sports who stayed inside the RMSC in Manila and Philsports in Pasig City were forced to go home in the provinces.

Host Vietnam postponed the 31st SEA Games supposedly scheduled end of the year in Hanoi and rescheduled the 11-nation meet in mid-May next year, prompting sports associations to resume the training of their athletes.

“We are checking the integrity of the dorms and the structure of the training facilities to make sure they are safe,’’ said Velasco, also the chief of staff of PSC Chairman William Ramirez.

Both controlled by the PSC, areas inside the RMSC and Philsports are being spruced up for reopening under a bubble setup.

“The management committee of the PSC has recommended to the PSC board to prepare these bubble training centers this month,’’ said Velasco.

He explained the sports agency has been coordinating with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases on the proposed reopening because some parts of the government-owned venues are still being used as COVID-19 quarantine areas.

While several sports have already resumed the training of their athletes, those sports whose athletes will stay at RMSC and Philsports will have seven months to whip themselves up in tip-top condition.

According to PSC Commissioner and Team Philippines chef de mission Ramon Fernandez, karate and boxing have begun setting up their camps in Baguio City as well as track and field.

Muay is likewise eyeing the City of Pines as a training ground, kickboxing is already busy working out in high-altitude Benguet, while sepak takraw intends to assemble its bubble training in the Ilocos region.

Canoe-kayak will prepare its paddlers in Tacloban City, the national archery team has found a host in Dumaguete City and fencing is at home in Ormoc City courtesy of its city mayor Richard Gomez, the concurrent fencing chief and 2nd vice president of the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Weightlifting, which produced the first-ever Olympic gold medal for the country through the masterful efforts of Hidilyn Diaz, has existing PSC-backed facilities in Zamboanga City, Cebu and Bohol.