SPANISH air rifle shooting coach Miguel Tajuelo Rodriguez is in Cebu to oversee the Air Rifle Grassroots Sports Development Program of the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) at the Cebu City Sports Institute in barangay San Nicolas, Cebu City.
The 41-year-old Spaniard has been tapped by the CCSC under chairman Edward Hayco to spearhead the project, which is held in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).
Presently, Rodriguez is training 75 kids from the Pasil area, Sawang Calero and other neighboring barangays.
“It is a partnership project. Spanish coach Miguel formally turned over 15 air rifles from PSC to DepEd Cebu City and to Gayle Dico, the CCSC’s commissioner in charge for the grassroots,” Hayco said.
Hayco said 15 schools will be identified to be custodians of one rifle each. There will also be 60 volunteer PE teachers who will be trained for one week for the program.
“Once we have enough air rifle athletes, we will have a tournament every month at the Cebu City Sports Institute,” Hayco added.
Hayco said he is hoping the program will be able to produce future sharp shooters. “We aim our sight for a try on the Olympics in 2020. The grassroots’ age bracket, 12 to 17 years old, is an ideal age. Calmness and intellect are virtues required for an air rifle athlete,” he said.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, said they will be focusing on street kids and will be using state-of-the-art equipment to be able to keep in step with the current competition.
“The focus of this program really is the street kids of Cebu City who are 12 to 17 years old,” Rodriguez said. “In the program, we are going to use laser sights for the guns.”
Experience-wise, the CCSC couldn’t have gotten a coach with a better qualification than Rodriguez. He is a multi-awarded international shooting athlete, having joined and won many different shooting competitions all over the world.
He was in the Spanish National Shooting team for many years and has won gold 23 times in Spanish shooting competitions. He is also a many-time European Shooting champion, a World Cup Shooting champion and has won the titles more than 50 times in different world shooting competitions, including a pre-Olympic shooting competition.