3 canoe bets vie for Olympic slots

THreefilipinopaddlerswillshootfortokyoolympics slots—andmoreimportantlyphilippinesportshistory—in the Canoe Sprint Asian Olympic qualifier in May in Thailand.

Philippine Canoe-kayak Dragon Boat Federation (PCKDBF) head coach Leonora Escollante said Hermie Macaranas, Ojay Fuentes and John Paul Selencio will compete in the May 5 to 7 qualifiers in Pattaya, hoping to become the first Filipino or Filipinos to participate in Olympic canoeing.

Macaranas topped the men’s 200-meter C1 event for the country’s first-ever canoe gold medal in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. He also clinched silver medals in the 1000-meter singles and 200-meter doubles with Fuentes.

“Ican’tmakeanypredictionfornowbecauseihaven’t seen their foreign rivals yet due to the pandemic,” Escollante

told a telephone interview from her hometown of San Miguel in Leyte. “But I have faith in God. Hopefully, we can get a spot.”

Macaranas, a native of Bayambang (Pangasinan), will team up with Selencio, of San Pascual in Masbate, in the 1000-meter C2 event in Pattaya, while the Cebuano Fuentes will compete in the non-olympic qualifying 500-meter doubles and 200-meter singles events. The top five finishers will qualify for the Olympics. Escollante was a member of the national women’s volleyball team that won gold in the 1993 Singapore SEA Games but has since converted to canoe and kayak.

Fuentes,macaranasandselenciomovedtheirtraining camp from Laguna Lake to the isolated Malpag River in San Miguel, Leyte. They will fly to Pattaya on April 15 with assistant coach Christian Avejar and will undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine in a hotel.

“They really need to train in an isolated place so they will be focused,” Escollante said.