Caluag hones up for Olympic elims

MANILA, Philippines - BMX specialist Daniel Caluag, the country’s lone gold medalist in the 2014 Asian Games, has things all figured out in his bid to make it to next year’s Rio Olympics.

Caluag, 28, also a veteran of the 2012 London Olympics, is in Lexington, Kentucky with his wife and young child, and where he’s a registered nurse.

On the side, Caluag rides his BMX, staying in great shape and hoping to make it to the Rio Olympics scheduled Aug. 5 to 21.

Soon, the Filipino-American will gear up for the Oympic qualifiers.

“We have all the tournaments lined up. There’s no sense of urgency,” said Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines president Abraham Tolentino yesterday.

The Philcycling chief said Caluag is just waiting for the right tournaments to join and earn points that would qualify him to the Rio Olympics.  

“Kung saan mas maluwag ang laban at mas madali mag-qualify (Where the competition is lighter and easier to qualify),” said Tolentino.

The congressman from Tagaytay said there’s a handful tournaments coming up, adding that qualifiers for BMX runs until March next year.

It’s the road race where the qualifiers will end in December.

Tolentino said they’ve submitted a budget proposal of $17,000 to the Philippine Sports Commission to shoulder Caluag’s bid to qualify.

Tolentino recalled that when Caluag qualified to the last Asian Games, it was just a month before the competition in Incheo.

“No need to worry,” he said, reacting to a statement made by Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richie Garcia that time may be running out on Caluag.

Garcia expressed his concern finding out that since last year’s Asiad, they haven’t seen Caluag in any of the major BMX events.

Still, the PSC is not turning its back on Caluag.

“When he won the gold in the Asian Games, we made it known that we will support him all the way,” said Garcia.