Philippine Football Federation President Nonong Araneta was appointed as the country’s Chef de Mission in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Philippine Olympic Committee president Bambol Tolentino announced yesterday.
The announcement was made during the POC General Assembly at the Diamond Hotel in Manila where 35 representatives from different national sports associations attended along with International Olympic Committee representative to the Philippines Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski and her predecessor Frankie Elizalde.
Araneta will oversee the country’s preparations and participation in the Games as the country bids for its first-ever Olympic gold.
“I’ll do my best. Whatever assignment given to us, we just have to do our responsibility,” said Araneta.
Araneta, who was recently appointed as the chairperson of the Asian Football Finance Committee for the term 2019 to 2023, will be attending a five-day meeting in Tokyo, Japan for all the Chief of Missions of participating nations.
His first order of command will be the identification of athletes and sports with big chances of qualifying to the Games.
“Hopefully after that CDM (Chef de Mission) meeting, I will be able to report on the next steps for our Olympic preparations,” said Araneta.
The country has yet to win an Olympic gold medal. So far, it has won three silver and bronze medals with the recent achievement coming from weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who bagged a silver at the 2016 Rio Games. (KRISTEL SATUMBAGA)