ALL 12 athletes going to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics will have a bigger allowance. President Rodrigo Duterte said during a sendoff ceremony in Malacanang that their allowance for the entire trip will be raised from $1,000 to $3,000.
He also added that the allowance of officials going to games will now be $5,000, from $3,000.
Some of the athletes present during the ceremony were Kirstie Elaine Alora of taekwondo, Marestella Torres-Sunang of athletics and Ian Lariba of table tennis.
The others are not in the country, training abroad.
Duterte also promised to increase the financial assistance of athletes who are not only preparing for the Olympics, but for other international meets as well.
The delegation was told by Duterte that they should not to be afraid of the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease that’s become a scare during the preparation for the Games.
Meanwhile, the effort to produce top-class athletes takes a lot of planning.
Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association president Philip Ella Juico said this as they prepare to have a sendoff for long jumper Marestella Torres-Sunang, marathoner Mary Joy Tabal and sprinter Eric Cray.
“Having for the first time three entries for athletics in the Olympics does not come as a surprise to us,” said Juico, adding that their effort to reach the Olympics is “the fruit of all the hard work of these three athletes and valuable support of the government and the private sector.”
“Producing top-class athletes like Marestella, Mary Joy and Eric takes intentional program planning. PATAFA has meticulously made the groundwork to identify new talents and provide optimum support to make them reach their full potential which includes being able to compete at the Olympics,” said Juico.
Juico refers to the revitalized training arm of PATAFA and its on-going grassroots programs, which have calendared training series in different parts of the country reaching as far as Batanes and Zamboanga.
Cray first qualified even as early as June 2015 when he set a new SEA Games and Philippine record in Singapore in the 400m hurdles with a time of 49.40s, equaling the Olympic standard.
But on June 23 this year, Cray definitively put a stranglehold on his Olympic qualification in 400m hurdles at the IAAF World Challenge in Madrid, Spain by clocking 48.98s.
This new Philippine record puts Cray in the top 10 of the most recent world ranking for 400m hurdles.
Olympic qualification did not come that easy for Mary Joy Tabal.
After 4 attempts for the marathon event in a span of 5 months, Tabal finally made the mark of 2:43:29 through unceasing grit to barge into the Olympics.
For Torres-Sunang, qualifying to the Rio Olympics was never an easy journey.
At 35, with two Olympics under her belt and exacting demands of motherhood, the 2016 Olympic qualification may be the most arduous part of her athletics career.