RP tankers impressive in Olympic buildup

Philippine Sports commissioner Richie Garcia yesterday said the Filipino swimmers gearing up for the Beijing Olympic Games have shown remarkable improvement during their training in the United States.

“I went there to personally see their progress and their coaches seemed impressed with them,” said Garcia.

Daniel Coakley, Ryan Arabejo and James Walsh along with Olympic hopeful Kendrick Uy are all training at Bolles, a world-class swimming school in Jacksonville, Florida under former Olympic medalists Sergio Lopez of Spain.

On the other hand, Miguel Molina, the most bemedalled RP athlete with four golds in last year’s SEA Games is priming up at University of Southern California.

Molina, a Berkeley graduate, is receiving $3,500 a month from the PSC.

Garcia, who spent four days in Florida and a week in California, said the rest of the Filipinos seeing action in Beijing, including boxer Harry Tañamor, taekwondo jins Mary Antoniette Rivero and Tshomlee Go and archer Mark Javier will be given $500 a month each when they start their training abroad.

Coakley, the 50-meter freestyle SEA Games gold medalist and record holder, has started his weight training for the first time, which should be a good sign since his 22.80 time in the SEA Games is barely 1.2 seconds off the eight-year-old world record owned by Russian Alexander Popov (21.64).

“I was told that Coakley never had weight training, he is now undergoing weight training that should improve his strength and maybe improve his time,” said Garcia.

Like Coakley, Arabejo, a triple SEAG gold medal winner, and Walsh, who also won two gold medals in last year’s SEAG, are also training in Bolles.

Walsh, for one, has also been practicing with four Beijing-bound schoolmates at the Florida State U.

“Coakley, Walsh and Arabejo usually kick off their daily routine as early as 5 a.m. until 9 a.m. and returns in the afternoon from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Molina, for his part, almost has the same practice routine. They’re really very disciplined,” said Garcia.