Stranded national athletes under PSC care longing for home

Marathon queen Christine Hallasgo is worried sick of her daughter and husband back in their hometown in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.

The Southeast Asian Games champ has not seen her family for a month and a half. And it is a problem she shares with at least 39 national athletes and coaches currently under the care of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) after being stranded by the enhanced community quarantine that started more than a month ago.

PSC’s national training director Marc Velasco said they had arranged for the plane tickets of these athletes and coaches before the lockdown.

“Unfortunately, some of their provinces closed [down] before they could leave or fly out,” he told the Inquirer.

Aside from Hallasgo, fellow SEA Games gold medalist Anfernee Lopena is also housed at national team dorms inside Philsports in Pasig. Lopena bagged the 4 X 100m mixed relay along with Eric Cray, Kristina Knott and Eloiza Luzon during the Games last December.

Joining them are four members of the national fencing team including Korean coaches Kim Seung-jun and Park Sang-sun. Boxers John Paul Pabuanan, Mark Lester Durens, Paul Julyfer Bascon, Marjon Pianar and Junmilardo Ogayre are also on the list.

Nineteen athletes are housed in facilities maintained by the Philippine Sports for the Differently Abled.

The Philsports Arena has been transformed into a quarantine facility by the PSC, which also allowed Ninoy Aquino Stadium at Rizal Memorial Sports Complex to be become COVID-19 hospital extensions.