By Waylon Galvez
With a heavy heart, the fencing national team parted ways with its Korean mentors Kim Seungjun and Park San Sun following the expiration of their respective contracts last month.
Kim and Park, gold medalist in the 2006 Asian Games, first arrived here February 2019 as the local fencers were preparing for the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games which the country hosted late last year.
Their contracts expired at the end of February 2020 but with six fencers eyeing spots in Tokyo Olympics via the Asian Championships in Korea, they were renewed by the Philippine Fencing Federation (PFA) for another six months – as approved by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), which pays for their salary.
But due to the coronavirus pandemic, both the Asian Championship and the Tokyo Olympics were reset to next year.
The two Koreans were forced to stay at their quarters in Philsports Complex (Formerly ULTRA) in Pasig City due to travel restrictions.
Philippine Team head coach Rolando “Amat” Canlas Jr. is confident the two Koreans will be tapped once again when the health crisis is over.
“Babalik silang dalawa for sure,” Canlas said in an interview Friday night.
“Parang bakasyon lang muna sila sa bansa nila ang dating para sa amin, pero sigurado ako babalik sila dahil ito naman yung naging usapan namin kasama na ng fencing federation.”
Kim and Park are expected to fly back to their homeland next week.
Canlas said that he already had a conversation with PFA president Richard Gomez. They both agreed to request the government sports agency to get the services of the two Koreans by November.
In the absence of the foreign mentors, Canlas said coaches Almario Vuzcayno, Emerson Segui, Arman Bernal, Ramil Endriano and Veena Nuestro would handle practice sessions since victual training continues for the fencers.
