FILE – The Philippines’ Daniel Caluag, right, hurdles a jump on the way to a bronze medal in the 2018 Asian Games BMX competition. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines— With the sports scene slowly getting back on its feet, the country is set to host a major cycling event next year.
The 2023 Asian BMX Championships and the Asian Junior BMX Championships is expected to be held at the Tagaytay City International Convention Center (TICC) complex in March 2023.
This was announced by the Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC) during its Annual Congress in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on Sunday, March 27, 2022.
The Congress officially granted the hosting rights to the Philippines through the Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines (PhilCycling).
“We thank the ACC for granting the PhilCycling’s bid to host the Asian championships,” said PhilCycling chief Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, also the president of the Philippine Olympic Committee.
“It’s been a while since we hosted international cycling events and with this privilege, PhilCycling, Tagaytay City and the entire country for that matter will put their best foot forward for this event.”
To make the competition next year grander, Tolentino revealed that PhilCycling will ask the UCI to calendar the 2023 Asian championships as qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The last time Tagaytay hosted an international cycling competition was during the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. The scenic city was the main hub of competitions for Road and BMX while nearby Laurel (Batangas) hosted the Mountain Bike (MTB) competitions.
Leading the Philippines BMX racing campaign is Olympian Daniel Caluag, the lone gold medalist at the Incheon 2014 Asian Games. Joining him are his brother CJ Caluag and 2019 Asian Junior Championships gold medalist Patrick Coo.
BMX Freestyle, now an Olympic and UCI event, consists of Flatland and Street with 2019 SEA Games veterans Renz Viaje and Alan Ray Alfaro leading the charge.
The venue recently got an upgrade after a roofing was built over the BMX track, making it more capable of hosting such international events.
The Flatland competitions will be staged at the Sigtuna Hall inside the TICC and the Street events at the existing skatepark facility at the Tagaytay City athletics oval.
/bmjo
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