PSC banking on quality training for Olympic bets

Despite budgetary and time constraints, the Philippine Sports Commission is not willing to sacrifice the quality of training of the Filipino athletes vying in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"A loss of a day, a week or a month is a loss. But we will make do with what we have. And this will certainly be better than none," said PSC chairman Butch Ramirez.

"We still have 15 months before the Olympics, and if the money does not really come in, we will have to reduce the length of their training overseas. But the quality won’t change," he added.

The PSC chief was reacting to the growing delay in the launch of the RP Olympic training program. Originally set to start last March, the PSC is now looking at the end of May.

Around 20 athletes from six sports like diving, swimming and fencing are scheduled to fly to China on May 30 for an extensive world-class training that was supposed to start two months ago.

Ramirez said the PSC will shoulder the initial expense for the China trip as the sports community awaits the bulk of the budget that would come from the private sector.

"We have prepared a contingency plan and a contingency budget for this. We’re only hoping that once the First Gentleman Foundation takes over, things will lighten up," he said.