Filipino Olimpian EJ Obiena and Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc lead the opening of the first pole vault pit in Ilocos Norte at the Ferdinand E. Marcos (FEM) Memorial Stadium, today.
In his message, Obiena said the facility aims to empower young and homegrown athletes in the sport.
“In the long time that I’ve been active as an athlete, there’s pretty much two ways to be globally competitive in any sport that we do; one is recruit athletes outside the Philippines with a Filipino heritage, nothing wrong with that, that’s one way of doing things. The one a bit closer to myself is to develop in our own backyard, and that’s why I’m doing all of this and it is why I’m pushing LGUs to open the stadiums and let the kids have a place to train,” he said.
(Source: PIA Ilocos Norte)