Liranza return gets PSC nod

The Philippine Sports Commission yesterday approved the return of Cuban boxing coach Raul Fernandez Liranza in a move aimed at further boosting the boxers’ three-year training program geared towards the country’s first Olympic gold medal in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Liranza, who helped Cuba scoop five gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics, is set to arrive this month for his third tour of duty with the local boxers. He stands to receive a monthly stipend of $3,000, or P157,560, with the $2,500 coming from the sports agency and the rest from the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines. He is expected to stay in the PSC’s training camp in Baguio.

Liranza’s first stint in RP was in 1995 to 1996 when he mentored Mansueto "Onyok" Velasco in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He came back in 1999 to 2000 before returning home to concentrate on the Cuban national squad.

Meanwhile, the Olympic Solidarity Movement has offered scholarship grants to athletes seeking to qualify in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing with at least 16 NSAs (national sports associations) expected to avail themselves of the program.

In a letter sent by Olympic Solidarity director Pere Miro to the Philippine Olympic Committee recently, a selected few stand to receive scholarship grants that will finance the training of athletes seeking qualification in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The NSAs expected to submit their candidates are archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, canoeing, equestrian, fencing, gymnastics, judo, lawn tennis, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, taekwondo and weightlifting, among others.

Deadline for submission is on Jan. 15.

Among the benefits an athlete or athletes will get if chosen in the program are access to appropriate training facilities, a coach, regular medical and scientific assistance and control, accident and illness insurance, board and lodging, pocket money and access to technical information on the Beijing Games.

The program, adopted during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, aims at assisting elite athletes nominated by their respective National Olympic Committees in their preparation and qualification for the 29th edition of the Games, which goes to China for the first time.