Team Philippines thankful of Hidilyn

By Ian Brion, Reporter

and Reuben Terrado, Correspondent

THANKS to weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, members of the Philippine delegation could watch all 37 sports—and more important cheer all 15 Filipino athletes—in next month’s Beijing Olympics.

A country needs bets in at least seven sports for its delegation members to gain an all-access entry in all venues of the Olympics.     

Besides weightlifting, Filipino athletes are entered in athletics, archery, boxing, taekwondo, shooting and swimming.

The all-access pass, according to wushu head Julian Camacho, includes the 80,000-seat Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest.

Diaz, 16, of Zamboanga, earned a wild-card berth to the weightlifting competitions of the Beijing Games. She joins swimmers Miguel Molina, Daniel Coakley, James Walsh, Ryan Arabejo and Christel Simms; divers Shiela Mae Perez and Ryan Rexel Fabriga; taekwondo jins Tshomlee Go and Toni Rivero; boxer Harry Tañamor; archer Mark Javier; and long jumpers Henry Dagmil and Marestella Torres, who are the country’s compulsory bets in athletics.

The Beijing Games are scheduled August 8 to 24.

Molina, meanwhile, agreed to step aside in favor of professional boxer Manny Pacquiao, the four-division world champion, as flag-bearer for Team Philippines in the Olympics’ opening ceremonies.

Mark Joseph, president of the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (PASA), said Molina did not express any objection on Pacquiao, who was tasked by President Arroyo to be at the front of Team Philippines in the traditional countries’ march in the opening ceremonies.

“I talked to him and he expressed that it’s ‘no problem’ if Manny Pacquiao is the flag-bearer,” said Joseph.

Molina is the most outstanding male athlete of the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand. He was appointed flag-bearer by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) last month.

This marks the second time Molina was replaced as flag-bearer. In the 2006 Doha Asian Games in Qatar, he was replaced by four-time World Cup bowling champion Paeng Nepomuceno.

“Miguel and Manny are both high-performance athletes and patriots,” Joseph added.

The POC executive board will convene on July 9 to formally approve Pacquiao’s designation as flag-bearer. POC officials, the BusinessMirror learned, refused to oppose Mrs. Arroyo’s appointment of Pacquiao and instead agreed to support it.

Pacquiao competes in the professional side of boxing. The General Santos City native, who has been adored as perhaps the country’s best pro boxer, has never represented the country as an amateur in an international competition.

If Pacquiao indeed bears the country’s tricolors, it would break an Olympics tradition where flag-bearers are Olympic athletes themselves.

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Team Philippines thankful of Hidilyn

THANKS to weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, members of the Philippine delegation could watch all 37 sports—and more important cheer all 15 Filipino athletes—in next month’s Beijing Olympics.

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