Cordova heads Pinoy rowers bid for London

MANILA, Philippines - The Amateur Rowing Association of the Philippines (ARAP) is grooming five rowers, led by reigning Southeast Asian Games single sculls champion Nestor Cordova, for a serious bid to qualify for the London Olympics.

ARAP president Benjie Ramos said Cordova and two pairs of SEAG medalists, Sydney Olympian Benjie Tolentino and Joe Rodriguez (double sculls silver), and Edgar Ilas and Alvin Amposta (lightweight double sculls bronze) are training rigidly in preparation for a possible shot at the coming Olympic qualifiers.

The ARAP intends to send three rowers – one in open single sculls and a tandem in lightweight double sculls – to the Asian Continental Qualification Regatta on April 25-30 in Chungju, Korea, where tickets to London await the six entries who will reach the finals of the said events.

Ramos said this is the Pinoy rowers best chance to make it to the 2012 Games as the next race, the Final Qualification Regatta on May 20-23 in Lucerne, will increase in level of competition 10-fold, being a world event.

“Our rowers’ main ambition is to really qualify for the Olympics,” said Ramos.

Among the hopefuls, the ARAP likes the chances of Cordova, the pride of Murcia, Negros Occidental who ruled the SEA Games’ M1X event with a clocking of 7 minutes, 16 seconds.

“His (winning) time in the SEA Games is within the range of the finalists in the last Asian championships so if he can improve by seven or eight seconds, he’ll have a good chance of reaching the finals (and qualifying for London),” said Ramos.

The hopefuls are training at the La Mesa Dam under the supervision of coach Ed Maerina. Ramos said their foreign coach, Rolandas Kazlauskas, is no longer around following the end of his contract but they are still in constant communication with the Lithuanian who handled their pre-SEAG training.

The ARAP is looking to send entries to the Olympics for the first time since Tolentino qualified the 2000 edition in Sydney, finishing 18th overall.