PSC wants own ‘bubble’ for Olympic bets

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Sports Commission is planning to train the Tokyo-bound athletes and Olympic hopefuls in one place should government provide them the green light to resume training.

“We can have them in a bubble,” said PSC national training director Marc Velasco yesterday.

Velasco’s statement came a couple of days after the sports-funding agency teamed up with the Philippine Olympic Committee in seeking the approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the resumption of training of the Olympic bets.

The idea of creating its own bubble came from National Basketball Association, which will host the league restart in one venue in Orlando, Florida.

If the IATF gives the green light, boxers Eumir Marcial and Irish Magno, who have already made the cut along with gymnast Caloy Yulo, who is in Japan, and pole-vaulter EJ Obiena, who is in Italy, will now be allowed to train together with several Tokyo aspirants.

Among them are world champion female boxer Nesthy Petecio, skateboarder Margie Didal, taekwondo jin Pauline Lopez, judoka Kiyomi Watanabe and karatekas Junna Tsukii and Jamie Lim.

Included in the proposal for training exemptions are para-athletes headed by swimmer Ernie Gawilan, who was the first to qualify to Tokyo, and table tennis’ Josephine Medina, who recently received an invitation that put her a heartbeat away from qualifying to the next Paralympics.

Velasco said guidelines and protocols have already been set.