Filipino Asiad standouts shift focus to 2028 Olympics

MANILA, Philippines — From accomplishing its mission in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the Philippine team has now shifted its sight to another one — the more gargantuan task of qualifying to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

But Asiad gold medalists Carlos Yulo and EJ Obiena, and the rest of the Filipino athletes know it would be a long, arduous journey to Mt. Olympus.

“We’ll see, I really am taking it a day at a time, seeing what exactly fuels my fires,” said Asiad pole vault gold medalist EJ Obiena during last Tuesday night’s “Heroes’ Welcome” hosted by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee at the Century Seafoods Restaurant in Manila.

“If I don’t truly feel that, if I don’t truly comprehend the sacrifices that I need to make, I don’t want to be in LA just to be in LA. If I’m going to do that, I’m going to go all out and win the thing,” he added.

Obiena said he’ll think of completely regaining his old bearings after recovering from various injuries.

“I’m completely healthy now,” he said. “But this is a comeback season for me, and I take this as a stepping stone.”

While Obiena would need to meet the Olympic standard in athletics to qualify to LA, Yulo would have to compete and win his spot in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships next year in Chengdu, China, and not this year set October 17-25 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

“The most important is next year since it will be a qualifier for the Olympics,” said Yulo, a double-gold winner in the Asiad. “But for this one, I just want to see the rotation and I’m praying we will be safe competing there.”

POC President Abraham Tolentino said the country should now focus on pouring all its resources in supporting athletes and sports that have the best chance of qualifying to the Olympics.

“Dapat focus natin after Asian Games ang training, pag sponsor sa qualifying tournaments,” he said.

Tolentino said Alex Eala should be a shoe-in in LA if she sustains her ranking at No. 18.

And more should come from other sports, including boxing and taekwondo, which will be having their qualifying competitions next year.

“Doon dapat focus at direction natin, dun din focus funding. Huwag bibitinin, dapat buhos yan,” he said.

For PSC Chairman Patrick Gregorio, his role is to help secure the national team more government funding.

“The next 10 days will be very crucial because the PSC will have budget hearings on October 8 and 19 in the Senate and there will fight for more funding for sports because it will be a busy year for us next year with a lot of events coming, including the Southeast Asian Games and Olympic qualifiers,” he said.

For Obiena, he hopes more Filipinos would qualify for LA.

“Moving forward, come LA, it’s going to be fun and good, everyone here, not just the three of us, everyone gunning, especially this guy Eldrew (Yulo) and Victoria (Bossong), hopefully, we’ll have a big team,” he said.

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