Medalists get bonuses; nat’l road races up in Tagaytay

The first wave of Philippine athletes who medaled in the Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia last month received their cash bonuses from the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) Friday to mark the festivities of Olympic Day at the University of the Philippines track and field oval.

Individual gold medalists got P100,000 each as the POC drew the incentive from the support of the Manuel V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation (MVPSF) which is deposited to the POC trust fund initiated by the sports body’s president, Bambol Tolentino.

“We are celebrating now Olympic Day and it’s a good timing. We want to thank our athletes as well for giving their best,” said Jude Turcuato, the MVPSF executive director. Silver and bronze medal winners get P50,000 and P25,000, respectively, with the rest of the 260 medalists getting their incentives all before the end of next week.

“The POC is so grateful to Mr. Manny V. Pangilinan for his continuous generosity to help our athletes to excel in their respective sports through the years,” Tolentino said. “The athletes are very thankful and they promise us to do their best in future competitions.”

Meanwhile, the PhilCycling national championships for road flags off Tuesday in Tagaytay City with more than 700 riders seeing action in criterium, individual time trial and road race.

Tolentino, also the head of the PhilCycling, will flag off the first criterium race at 8 a.m. as the annual four-day championships will be used for the evaluation and selection of members of the national men’s and women’s road teams.