Cordillera athletes join national elite list

Sunday, February 5, 2012

FOUR Cordillerans were recently included as among the 29 priority athletes after their golden performance in the recent Southeast Asian Games.

Boxers Alice Kate Aparri, Wushu's Eduard Folayang and Mark Eddiva, wrestling's Jason Balabal were among the athletes named by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) who will receive a monthly allowance of P40,000, an improvement from their previous take of only P25,000.

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Aside from the athletes, the PSC also identified 10 sports events it is giving priority attention with the hopes of improving the country's showing in the next Southeast Asian Games.

Boxing and taekwondo, the best performing sports in Indonesia with four gold medals each, are expected to get the biggest chunk of financial support from the PSC.

The other eight "priority sports" that will get big funding from the PSC are athletics (P12 million), swimming (P12 million), wushu (P12 million), archery (P10 million), wrestling (P10 million), bowling (P8 million), weightlifting (P8 million) and billiards (P6 million).

Curiously, swimming is the only event included in the priority list that didn't win a single gold in Indonesia.

The PSC will also allot funding to 25 disciplines considered on the rebuilding phase.

Shooting, also among the sports that did not fare well in Indonesia but has strong Olympic-medal potential, will get P10 million, the biggest in the 25 "rebuilding sports", while chess gets P8 million and dance sports, cycling and judo P5 million each.

Badminton, baseball, basketball, canoe-kayak, karate, rowing, rugby, sailing, volleyball, dragon boat, equestrian, fencing, football/futsal, gymnastics, softball, table tennis, lawn tennis and triathlon are to receive P3 million while golf will have P2.5 million and water polo P2 million. (Roderick Osis)