The Philippine delegation during 9th ASEAN Para Games opening ceremony last Sunday, September 17th. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ Janneth Tenorion
Team Philippines has visualized sending a full delegation to the twice-postponed Asean Para Games (APG) next year, but the Philippine Paralympic Committee (PPC) feels that its success will hinge mostly on the availability of training facilities for every para athlete in the delegation.
PPC secretary general Walter Torres, designated the country’s chef de mission to the APG, said the national para athletes would need access to sports facilities for them to perform at a level that could yield medals.
“It’s not easy to find accessible training facilities. I hope our para athletes can return to the facilities since most of them are from the provinces,’’ said Torres.
The short training period of two months prior to the Paralympic Games in Tokyo this year affected the nonmedal performance of the national Paralympic team besides the challenges of surviving the COVID-19 pandemic.
Only three of the six Filipino Paralympians were able to compete in Tokyo after the rest tested positive from the virus.
Aside from the funding of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), the team needs access to PSC-controlled sports facilities at Philsports in Pasig City, Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila and Baguio City so it can perform at its peak, Torres said.
Indonesia, which took the cudgels of staging the 11-nation APG, has proposed 13 sports, including wheelchair basketball and football, with the national contingent expected to play in all of them.
“We want to send a competitive and winning team to Indonesia that can represent us in all 13 sports. It’s hard to say how many medals we can win since there is no list of events yet,’’ said Torres.