Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion has been busy these past few days.

According to Carrion, gymnasts in the national pool have been forced to stop training for more than two months since the national government placed Luzon on lockdown in mid-March to limit the transmission of the deadly novel corona virus.

While artistic gymnastics is a non-contact sport, national athletes have been barred from training at the GAP training center since it is just right behind Rizal Memorial Coliseum, which, along with the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, was turned into a quarantine facility for COVID-19 patients.

“A lot of our athletes are discouraged and losing interest because they have been unable to practice on the apparatus. This is very important for gymnasts because they will lose their form without doing their routines,” the GAP president stressed.

“Fitness and conditioning are not enough because constant execution and repetition builds up muscle memory.”

She was anxious that the inactivity could erode the sport’s gains in the last 30th Southeast Asian Games last December when national campaigners took home three gold, five silver and four bronze medals, winding up third overall in the six-nation tournament.

Highlighting their performance was Olympic-bound Carlos Edriel Yulo, who emerged as the country’s most bemedalled athlete in his SEA Games debut with two gold and five silver medals.

“I am aware that Russia has re-opened its training center for its national athletes. The same with Vietnam and Singapore,” the gymnastics chief bared.

“I’m afraid if we don’t resume training soon we will wind up far behind and become ‘kulelat’ (last) again.”

This has prompted Carrion to look for training venue options, and on Friday she was at the GAP gym pulling out some equipment to transfer them to an area near the Century City Mall in Makati, courtesy of property tycoon Joey Antonio.

“With the kind permission of Philippine Sports Commission Butch Ramirez, we are transferring some of our equipment to the Makati area,” Carrion said.

“I was informed that once the apparatuses are installed, it will be ready for our women’s artistic gymnasts in a week-and-a-half.”

The GAP president, a former Department of Tourism Undersecretary during the term of President Arroyo, added that the men’s artistic gymnasts will hopefully train at the Colegio San Agustin gym after asking the permission of school authorities to work out there.

“We already have some our equipment there so we hope our MAG athletes can also resume training,” said Carrion, who has already sent GAP’s new normal guidelines to the PSC for endorsement to the Inter-Agency Task Force overseeing the virus crisis for approval.

“We will follow all the recommendations of the PSC so our athletes can once again train, including wearing of face masks, social distancing, hand sanitizers, disinfection of the area before and after training. Everything,” she said.

Yulo progress being monitored

Carrion, president and chief executive officer of the government-owned Corregidor Foundation Inc., said she was confident in securing exemptions for some of the national gymnasts who are 19 years old and below.

This age group is confined at home under the prevailing quarantine conditions.

The GAP boss said that the men’s artistic gymnasts of Jag Timbang, Reyland Capellan and Ace de Leon must resume training, “because we want to form a four-man team that will compete with Caloy (Yulo’s nickname) for the 2021 Vietnam SEA Games next year.’

She was grateful that the training of Yulo, who has been working out in Tokyo for more than four years under Japanese men’s artistic gymnastics head coach Munehiro Kugimiya, has not stopped despite the global pandemic.

“We keep tabs on Caloy and he continues to train four times a week at a well-known gymnastics center in Tokyo,” Carrion said.

“He used to train five times a week, but it is now down to four because of the social-distancing measures in Japan. Coach Mune and Caloy have scheduled times at the facility.”

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