NATIONAL Sports Associations (NSAs) which will be sending entries to the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam later this year have been asked to submit plans for their new training programs after a bubble training for national athletes scheduled next week was cancelled.
Team Philippines chef de mission Ramon Fernandez met with representatives of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) on Friday to plot the next course of action for the SEA Games buoldup following the cancellation of the bubble training at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna supposed to start on April 15.
Laguna was among the four provinces along with the National Capital Region (NCR) which were put under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) two weeks ago following the spike of COVID-19 cases, thereby prohibiting the holding of contact sports in the areas.
Fernandez, also a PSC commissioner, sat down with POC deputy secretary general Karen Caballero and deputy chef de missions Al Agra and Pearl Managuelod to inform them about the latest development.
The day before, the 67-year-old basketball icon met with his team composed of PSC executive director Atty. Guillermo Iroy, Philippine Sports Institute national training director Marc Velasco, and other top agency officials to discuss their next move in the wake of the cancelled bubble training.
During the meeting, Fernandez suggested NSAs can look for cities or provinces under Moderate General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) which can accommodate the training of Filipinos athletes like what the fencing and archery teams had done/.
The Filipino fencers are currently training in a bubble in Ormoc City, whose current Mayor Richard Gomez, happens to be the president of the Philippine Fencing Association.
The archers on one hand, have set up their bubble training in Pantawan area in Dumaguete City through the World Archery Philippines.
The Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and Philsports Arena in Pasig have initially been eyed as possible bubble venues for other SEA Games-bound athletes.
But the two government owned sports facilities have been converted into quarantine areas for COVID-19 patients.
A total of 623 athletes in 39 sports will represent the country in the SEA Games slated Nov. 21 to Dec. 2.
This developed as Fernandez bared the Vietnam SEA Games Organizers decided to move all scheduled deadlines, including the submission of the number by entries, until further notice.
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