Some members of the Philippine Men’s Cycling Team have been invited to participate in the Tour of Thailand next month.
This is one of the tune-up competitions of Marcelo Felipe, Nichol Pareja, John Mark Lexer Galledo, Ronnel Hualda, Daniel Ven Carino, Ismael Gorospe, Jericho Lucero, and Marc Ryan Lago, all cyclists bound for the Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Watch this report from Khay Asuncion for more details:
According to Head Coach Ednalyn Hualda, the team wants to continue the strengthening program of the athletes through international exposure especially after the National Cycling Championships was postponed.
Hualda assured that the squad will be strict when it comes to the health and safety of those who will compete in Thailand.
“Bago mag-race abroad, need i-consider yung health condition ng mga tao, ‘yung safety. There are some races naman kasi like Thailand, ‘yung Covid insurance nila sa $100k. Ganoon kalaki pag nag-participate ka,” Hualda said.
[Before racing abroad, there is the need to consider the health condition of people, their safety. There are some races like that of Thailand where the Covid insurance is at $100k. That is how big it is when you participate.]
The team is now awaiting the go-signal from authorities for the coveted Thailand stint.
“Ang mahirap na lang kasi ngayon is ‘yung paglabas, ‘yung travel restrictions, pero sumulat na rin tayo sa iba’t ibang ahensya na sana mapayagan tayo, so we are looking forward kung makakuha na tayo ng approval for them. Kung wala, wala tayong magagawa , indoor training muna tayo ngayon,” Hualda added.
[The difficult thing these days is going out, the travel restrictions, but we have already communicated with different agencies to allow us, so we are looking forward to getting approval from them. If there won’t be any, then we cannot do anything.]
Just like other sports, the Philippine cycling team depends highly on indoor training and individual conditioning programs. – Report by Khay Asuncion/ JBB-jlo
