Philippine athletics body mulls SEAG training bubble in Baguio

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) is eyeing a bubble training in Baguio City as part of its Southeast Asian Games preparation once the pandemic situation improves.

“The PATAFA executive body is now in close coordination with the PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) and kinakasa na training period,” said PATAFA marketing head Edward Kho during yesterday’s PSC Hour.

“And based on preliminary talks, Baguio could be the host of the national team,” he added.

Kho also bared plans of sending the national long-distance running team headed by Southeast Asian Games women’s marathon gold medalist Christine Hallasgo to the United States to train.

“We’re looking for them to have a more conducive place to train like for example sa US, assuming matuloy ang SEA Games. Doon me accessible training facilities, walang iiwasan,” he said.

National long-distance running coach Eduardo Buenavista, for his part, said they never stopped training online but they would prefer to train outdoors since their event requires a lot of space and time.

“Sa totoo lang po tuloy naman po training online pero mahirap po talaga, kaliangan po talaga naming mag training sa labas kaso hindi kami makalabas dahil sa lockdown.

Athletics was one of the best performing events by the country when it hosted the SEA Games two years ago at the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac, after it raked in a harvest of 11 gold, eight silver and eight bronze medals including a 1-1-2 (gold-silver-bronze) haul in long-distance events.