A CONFLUENCE of events beyond anybody’s control due to the Covid-19 pandemic led largely to the lackluster Philippine campaign in the Tokyo Paralympic Games, according to Philippine Paralympic Committee President Mike Barredo.
“While we went through the exercise in participating in the Paralympic Games, we were affected by the circumstances of Covid-19 in the areas of training, preparation and actual participation. We were pretty much hit by it,” Barredo said on Saturday on the eve of the closing of the quadrennial meet.
The last national team that saw action in 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics emerged with a bronze medal courtesy of the late table tennis player Josephine Medina, who passed away last Thursday in her Marikina residence.
Barredo pointed out that powerlifter and 2012 London Paralympic veteran Achelle Guion and her coach, Tony Taguibao and national team chef de mission Francis Diaz tested positive for the virus days before they were to depart for Tokyo.
Then discus thrower Jeanette Aceveda and para athletic coach Bernard Buen, who were fully vaccinated, both tested positive and had to be quarantined in Tokyo, depriving Aceveda the chance of being the first visually impaired Filipino athlete to compete in the Games.
The last blow was when taekwondo jin Allain Ganapin also tested positive, forcing the athlete and his Coach Dindo Simpao to stay in Manila.