2024 Olympics

CEBU, Philippines - Two more days before the Rio Olympics comes to a close and we are lucky to have already snatched one silver medal courtesy of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz.

After returning back to the country, Diaz received her 5 million cash reward, not to mention extra cash incentives from other benefactors. With her success, Diaz became an inspiration for the Philippines in hopes of finally getting its first Olympic gold medal.

Just like Diaz, Cebuana road running queen Mary Joy Tabal, also made the country proud even if she wasn’t able to win a medal during the marathon event.

Tabal managed to finish the grueling race in with a time of 3:02:27. She could not handle Brazil’s noontime heat but showed heart as she finished 124th among 157 athletes.  After falling short in his Rio campaign, the pride of Barangay Guba is still upbeat in winning a medal for the country as she set her sights in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Meanwhile, the country’s final hope for a possible second medal is now on the hands of taekwondo jin Kirstie Alora who will compete in the 67 kg weight class today against Mexican Maria Espinoza.

Alora qualified during the Asian Taekwondo Olympic qualifying held last April in Manila and now she will test her skills as she aims to give pride to the country through taekwondo.

Other Phl bets who have already bowed down in their respective sporting events were Ian Lariba of table tennis, weight lifter Nestor Colonia, boxers Charly Suarez and Rogen Ladon, Eric Cray  Athletics, Jasmine Alkhaldi Swimming, Marestella Sunang of athletics, Jessie Lacuna of swimming and Fil-Japanese Kodo Nakano of judo.

  With this new administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, I have high hopes for our athletes with and with result of the Rio Olympics, the Philippine sports officials should immediately plan and look beyond 2020 Tokyo Olympics instead focus on the 2024 Olympics.

The sport program of a country is a reflection of how well the government is being run and I am positive for the condition of our sports program as this administration has done a lot for its first 50 days compared to the previous one.

For me, we should focus on sport that has weight class like judo, boxing, wrestling and weight lifting.

 Instead of spending more resources and time in bringing back our men’s basketball team in the Olympics, we should instead be pour our efforts in improving our individual sports.

Filipinos have a lot of potentials in individual sports. For instance, Paula Lynn Obanana is now one of the top badminton players seeing action in the Olympics but not for Philippines as she already migrated and became a citizen of the United States.

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 Congratulations also to all the finisher of the historic Cobra Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship.  I am super proud of  the METAFIT tri team as we had sent our biggest delegation in terms of individual participants.

It was a mission accomplished for  first time finishers in coach Lem Co, Pimco Pimentel, Zusette Co, Jeffrey Corro, coach Romulo Rossel,  who finished 10th in his age group as coach Dandy Maturan placed 30th.

Also, Fritz Co shaves off almost an hour from his personal time last year. Coach PJ Cañedo had a strong performance despite his hectic schedule in preparing for his wedding with fellow triathlete and Metafit coach Donafel Tacandong.

Bernard Palermo who has been consistent in the triathlon scene and a veteran of the Xterra off road triathlon also finished the race. Golda Cotanda should have registered in the individual category as she was able to survived the swim and grueling bike leg of the relay event.

 Team 2GA 2GA Bwahaha of Jidan Jackosalem (swim), Attorney Terence Fernandez (bike) and architect Rey Dauz (run)  showed their wares in the relay, as Sanjay Saroopdas conquered the race with five minutes remaining.

Thank you to our support group composed of Daphne Yu, Donafel Tacandong, Marian Unabia, Emelyn Co, Caroline Choachuy, Kenji Co, Jon Ouano, Joy and Jinggoy Bascug, Joy Ortaliz, Christian Demoral , Eric Limatog , Chris Famor, Mae Canedo, Ann Carmel and to our official videographer and photographer Maui Recla and Jay Crodua. A big thanks also to our sponsors Clip2fit Ph, Durabend and YKKBikes. (FREEMAN)