PSC to build third nat'l diving pool

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines will have a third Olympic-sized diving pool soon.

The Philippine Sports Commission is currently rebuilding the diving pool at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City to give the national divers another venue to train.

“We’re renovating it,” said PSC chair Harry Angping of the Philsports Arena pool, which has been converted into a scuba diving pool and fishpond.

Angping conducted an ocular inspection Friday afternoon on the ongoing construction.

The sports funding government agency is also set to start the refurbishing of the diving center over at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.

The repair of the Philsports aquatic center is being done for the first time since its construction 25 years ago.

“It’s been 25 years since this pool had its repairs,” said Angping.

Aside from the diving area, the swimming pool at Philsports is also being repaired and should be finished as early as the middle of May.

“We expect the renovation to finish by April 15 and it would need another month to fill the pool and the diving area with water so our estimate is that we’ll be able to finish it by May 15 at the earliest,” said Angping.

Once the Pasig facility is finished, the RP divers will have alternative training venue aside from the RMSC and the Trace Aquatic Center in Los Baños, Laguna.

Angping has been spearheading a major facelift of government-owned sports facilities to give RP athletes a better training venue.