MANILA, Philippines - Col. Cesar Hawthorne Binag, president of the Table Tennis Association of the Philippines (TATAP), has announced that the Marikina Hotel would be the official training venue of the national men’s and women’s team.
Binag said the men’s and the women teams had chosen Marikina City for its accessibility and better atmosphere where they can focus easily on training. The previous training venue was in Makati City.
Marikina City Mayor Del De Guzman also expressed full support to the Philippine table tennis team.
“It’s a unanimous decision from the players to transfer in Marikina,” said Binag, who also thanked the municipality of Makati for keeping its support to the Philippine team which is preparing for the 26th Southeast Asian Games in November in Indonesia.
He said the first class Marikina Hotel, owned by TATAP board member John Rex Tiu, will provide the food, aircon billeting rooms and allowances, among other things, to all the players besides their daily training for free.
“It’s not only Marikina and Makati that offered a training site but also the city of Mandaluyong , but we chose Marikina . They (players) have no any reason now not to win medals in the SEA Games since we already granted their wish [to move in Marikina ].”
The nationals composed of men Coach Henberd Ortalla, players Rodel Valle, Ting Ledesma and Richard Gonzales, women’s Crisanta Abas, Sendrina Balatbat, Ayra Malabayabas and Arlene Borja vowed to do their best to win gold medals.
“We are all happy to move and we’ll do our best to win gold medals in SEA Games,” said Ledesma. “We are all blessed with this rare opportunity. All we can do to pay this opportunity is to work hard and win.”
The last time the Philippines won a medal in the SEA Games was in 2005, when Richard Gonzales won a silver medal in the men’s singles open and the men’s team settled for bronze medal.