THE PHILIPPINE Sports Commission (PSC) through the Women in Sports program will continue to draw inspiration and empower more Filipina athletes in the field as they hold the 8th Women’s Martial Arts Festival starting this Saturday, Nov. 12 at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (RMSC) in Malate, Manila.
Philippine Sports Hall of Famer and Bowling legend Olivia “Bong” Coo is excited for the week-long tournament which will serve as her first major project as Commissioner of the national sports agency.
“Ang objective ko talaga is to increase the participation of women athletes,” said Commissioner Coo during Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum held in the PSC Conference Room today.
Nine regular sports that include pencak silat, wrestling, sambo, taekwondo, muay thai, kickboxing, karate, jiu jitsu, kurash, and two demonstration sports such as arnis and judo will be played during the Nov. 12 to 17 women’s martial arts festival. All competitions will be streamed live on PSC Women’s Martial Arts Festival Facebook page.
Ms. Coo hopes to discover more Filipina talents who will follow in the footsteps of the Philippines’ first Olympic weightlifting gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo, The World Games 2022 karate champion Junna Tsukii, jiu-jitsu world champions Meggie Ochoa and Kimberly Anne Custodio, 2022 US Open women’s junior singles titlist Alex Eala, among others.
Ms. Coo also encouraged parents and guardians to expose and let their children be into sports as early as possible. She also shared that through the competitions, different National Sports Associations (NSAs) may strengthen their national pool, and this event can be used for the search of new talents.
“We hope that during our term we can help produce more medals for the country,” concluded Ms. Coo adding that the sports festival will be part of the national selection process for some sports through their NSA of the Philippine team who will represent the country in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia and 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Thailand, next year.
