Training center for para athletes eyed

NAGOYA – If plans don’t miscarry, Filipino para athletes will have a training center they can call their own.

This after the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Paralympic Committee sought the guidance of the Asian Paralympic Committee for the possibility of constructing a first of its kind training center for athletes with disability back home.

“One of the reasons I flew here was to talk to the APC president,” said PSC chairman Patrick Gregorio referring to Majid Rashed. “Gusto nating tumulong pagdevelop ng gaming center for our para athletes in 2027 pareho ng ginawa natin sa taekwondo, football and baseball.”

“It’s about time we support the Philippine para team,” he added.

If it pushes through, PPC president Mike Barredo said it will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Philippine para movement’s creation.

“If that happens, I can now retire and rest easy knowing I will leave a legacy to the Philippine para movement,” he said.

Both Gregorio and Barredo lauded the Filipino athletes for finishing with a 2-2-3 (gold-silver-bronze) haul, which was good for 17th overall in the 5th Asian Para Games that concluded yesterday at the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium here.

This came three years after Team Philippines wound up ninth overall in Hangzhou, China where it had a 10-4-5 harvest, 8-3-2 of which came from chess.

So the effort here is an improvement from Hangzhou minus chess, which was scrapped from the games’ calendar by the host nation.

“More or less with what we did last para minus chess, of course, we did well and it was a job well done,” said Barredo.