MANILA, Philippines – Team Phiippines’ chef de mission to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Nonong Araneta said that national sports associations (NSA) with hopefuls to the global showpiece sports event must first figure out if countries holding their respective Olympic qualifiers have imposed travel bans.

“One problem we have now is that some countries are already preventing us from going there,” said Araneta in a mix of English and Filipino on Tuesday, March 10 in a press conference in the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC). 

“We have to find out if there are countries na may travel ban sa atin. So that’s a main point of concern for us. This advisory comes from two countries for now, Kuwait and Qatar, maybe other countries where we have a qualifying event [will also impose a travel ban].” 

One of these tournaments is the 2020 World Judo Masters that will be held in Doha, Qatar from May 28 to 30. 

This Olympic qualifying tournament is critical for top Philippine judoka Kiyomi Watanabe, who has been maintaining her world ranking for a berth in the quadrennial meet.

Aside from Kuwait and Qatar, other countries that have announced a travel ban on the Philippines are Saudi Arabia and Cook Islands. ‘

Araneta, though, recommended the Olympic qualifiers-bound Filipino athletes should arrive two weeks ahead of the competition to undergo the quarantine process. 

There are currently 64 athletes coming from archery, athletics, swimming, basketball, boxing, cycling, canoe-kayak, fencing, golf, gymnastics, judo, karate, rowing, skateboarding, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, weightlifting, and wrestling, who are working to qualify.

Out of the 64, 18 athletes have above average chances of booking a ticket to the largest quadrennial games this year, according to Araneta.

“Sa swimming may dalawa, athletics may apat, boxing sana apat pa, sa judo we have two or 3, sa golf 3, so that’s 16, sa skateboarding dalawa, so ‘yan yung mga tsansa,” noted Araneta.

(We have two in swimming, 4 in athletics, 4 more hopefuls in boxing, 2 in judo, 3 in golf, so that’s 16. Skateboarding has 2. Those are the ones who have chances.) 

So far, EJ Obiena for pole vault, Carlos Yulo for gymnastics, and Eumir Marcial for boxing have qualified to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. – Rappler.com