Members of the national athletics team will have all the support they need when they try join two qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the next two months.
The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association will have the support of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) when these tracksters join two big tournaments this February and March.
Female pole vaulter Natalie Uy, sprinter-hurdler Eric Cray, runner Kristina Knott, shot putter Willie Morrison and newly-added marathoner Christine Hallasgo are joining qualifiers with Mary Joy Tabal.
Patafa will have Uy, Cray, Knott and Morrison join the Asian Indoor this February in Hangzhou, China and the World Indoors in Nanjing, China.
Tabal is training in Japan, and will seek separate qualifiers with Hallasgo when they join other qualifying competitions abroad.
The support was finalized after PSC chairman William Ramirez met with Patafa President, Philip Ella Juico last Thursday.
The government sports agency made good on its promise to fully-support national athletes after President Rodrigo Duterte pledged P100 million to fund the foreign exposure of athletes seeking Olympic qualifying slots.
“With the President’s commitment to our national athletes, it is more than enough to sustain their foreign trips and the core team of each Olympic-bound athletes,” said Ramirez.
Pole vaulters EJ Obiena, who is already qualified, is now training in Italy.
The 24-year-old Obiena is currently ranked no. 14 in the world per latest standings.
Obiena was the first qualifier of the country in the 32nd Olympiad when he surpassed the qualifying mark by 5.81 meters during the tournament in Chiara, Italy last September.
“Our goal is to sustain this momentum in the Olympics and 2021 in Vietnam. We thank the PSC for its support for our athletes,” said Juico.
