Vargas taps Romasanta as Philippine chef-de-mission

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas has officially appointed POC first vice-president Jose Romasanta as chef-de-mission of the Philippine team to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

It will be the second tour of duty in the Olympics for Romasanta, who played the same role for the Philippine team to the 2016 Rio Oympics where weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz won the silver.

Romasanta received the appointment during Friday’s POC executive committee meeting. He is looking forward to the Summer Games set July 24 to Aug. 9 next year.

Sending more qualifiers to the Olympics, and winning the elusive gold are the main objectives, according to the karatedo and volleyball official.

“But before we talk of medals, let us talk about qualifying our athletes to the Tokyo Olympics. Let us think of qualifying our athletes first,” Romasanta told The STAR yesterday.

Qualifying events in various sports have kicked off. Romasanta urged the various NSAs (national sports associations) that have representation in the Olympics to make the qualifiers a priority.