The Philippine Sports Commission is hoping to start the training of some national athletes by January next year in a bubble at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
“We’re all set, we’re just waiting for the go signal from the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force),” said PSC chairman Butch Ramirez.
If it gets the green light from the IATF, the government’s sports-funding agency is targeting to bring in athletes from boxing, taekwondo, karatedo and other contact sports into Inspire by next month.
It will include Olympic-bound Irish Magno and some other Tokyo hopefuls like 2019 world champion Nesthy Petecio, karate’s Jamie Lim, and taekwondo’s Pauline Lopez, Samuel Morrison and 2016 Rio veteran Kirstie Alora.
Ramirez said they are ready to settle the amount it will cost them to hold the training at Inspire worth P15 million.
“The negotiation is doing good, we’re going to pay,” said Ramirez.
Ramirez also said he had already told his medical team to operate on the training resumption by implementing strict medical protocols to prevent members of the national team from being infected by the coronavirus.
“There is that fear and we hope none will be infected. That’s why I already instructed our team to be very, very strict with health protocols, it will stop if even one of our own gets infected,” said Ramirez.