MikeLigalig.com

By Nick Giongco

This is truly heart-warming for someone who started his career from nothing.
In the hope of inspiring Olympic-bound Filipino athletes, boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is offering a cash reward of P1 million for the athlete won wins a gold medal in the Beijing Games next month.

"Sana, kahit paano ay makatulong ito sa pag-motivate sa ating mga mahal na atleta," said Pacquiao late Monday.

Pacquiao will attend the Olympics after he was appointed by President Arroyo as the country’s special envoy to the Olympics and also as the flag bearer of the Philippine delegation.

Pacquiao’s pledge raises the Olympic pot to P8 million.

Broken down, the Filipino Olympic gold medal winner will get P5 million from the government as provided for by law while two private sponsors – Microsoft Philippines and businessman Lucio Tan – have also pledged P1 million each.

A total of fifteen Filipino athletes will compete in the Aug. 8 to 24 Games. The country’s strongest bets for a medal are athletes in boxing and taekwondo.

The members of the team are Henry Dagmil and Marestela Torres (athletics), Mark Javier (archery), Harry Tañamor (boxing), Sheila Mae Perez and Ryan Fabriga (diving), Eric Ang (shooting), Miguel Molina, James Walsh, Daniel Coakley, Ryan Arabejo and Christel Simms (swimming), Marie Antoinette Rivero and Tshomlee Go (taekwondo) and Hidilyn Diaz (weightlifting).

Experts have picked Tañamor, the 2007 world championships silver medalist, and taekwondo jins Rivero and Go, as the ones with the best chances of winning a medal.

Boxing brothers Roel and Onyok Velasco, 1992 Barcelona bronze medalist and 1996 Atlanta silver medalist respectively, believe that the 30-year-old Tañamor will win the gold if given a fair shake in the officiating and if the luck of the draw shines on him.

Onyok’s silver in 1996 was the last medal won by the country in the Olympics. Team Philippines failed to produce any in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).


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