Ramirez eyes US expert for  athletes training

The Philippine Sports Commission is keen on tapping a sports expert from the United States in an effort to provide more scientific training for the country’s elite athletes.

PSC chair William “Butch” Ramirez is specifically eyeing University of California Los Angeles athletic director Dan Guerrero to help in assessing and analyzing the development of RP’s top national athletes.

“Sports training has come a long way, it’s more scientific now,” said Ramirez, who arrived Thursday from visiting the Filipino boxers in the Asian Olympic Qualifier in Bangkok, Thailand.

“That’s why we need to get someone who is an expert in sports training that’s where Dan Guerrero comes in,” he added.

Ramirez will leave the country next week for Cuba where he hopes to enlist the services of three top-notch Cuban boxing coaches – the first two tasked to handling Beijing-bound boxers while the other assigned to supervising the country’s grassroots development program.

From Cuba, Ramirez said he would meet Guerrero for a possible stint with Filipino athletes this year.

“He’s a high performance analyst who would know everything concerning sports training,” said Ramirez referring to Guerrero, a United States Olympic Committee consultant.

If Guerrero agrees, he would be assigned to help in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Olympic-bound athletes Miguel Molina, Ryan Arabejo and Daniel Coakley of swimming, Mark Javier of archery and Harry Tañamor of boxing.