CAPAS, Tarlac – The athletics and aquatics stadium at New Clark City will be finished way ahead of schedule for the country's hosting of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
Bases and Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president and chief executive officer Vince Dizon said the athletics stadium is nearing completion while the aquatics center is now 90 percent complete.
Dizon said BCDA and its infrastructure developer MTD Philippines are targeting August 31 as the date of completion for the 20,000-seat athletics stadium and the 2,000-seater aquatics center.
“Right now, we can tell you with utmost certainty that all the facilities will be finished way ahead of schedule,” said Dizon giving mediamen a tour of the facilities on Friday.
Dizon said national athletes can already use the facilities by mid-August.
“The good thing is if we meet our timeline of August 31, our athletes can start using them as early as mid-August. We want them to get acclimatized with the new facilities. It’s sad that they are training in old, rundown facilities. They need time to get use to the facilities. That’s what I’m most excited about,” said Dizon.
“This is for them,” Dizon said, referring to the athletes. “Ang totoong may-ari nito ay ang ating mga athletes. Para sa kanila ginawa ito. They are looking forward to the time they are housed and train here.”
The athletics and aquatics stadium are part of Phase 1-A of the construction of the New Clark City, which was envisioned as a commercial, industrial, and government hub.
MTD Philippines president Nicholas David said the two sports facilities took 15 months to build as workers have been working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet the target date initially pegged at November 2019.
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