Puerto Rican Olympians will camp in Finland

OLYMPICS TOKYO 2020

San Juan, Jun 24 (EFE) .- The Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (COPUR) and its High Performance Department (DAR) reported this Thursday that the training camp of the island’s delegation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be held will be held in Finland, a country in northern Europe.

COPUR detailed in a statement that the camp will begin from July 9 at the Pajulahti Sport Institute located in the town of Nastola, in Finland.

The president of COPUR, Sara Rosario, communicated with the director of the DAR, Fernando Olivero, that Puerto Ricans will be concentrated in the Olympic training center, after months of searching for a venue after complicating the world panorama with the pandemic due to covid-19 .

“The camp was planned for Sapporo, Japan, before the pandemic. With the covid-19, Japan put very restrictive measures, so it did not give access to the camps, “said Rosario.

COULD BE CONFIRMED IN FINLAND

“Finally it was possible to confirm the training center in Finland, which Fernando and Ricky Beale, director of the Federal Services office, visited two weeks ago,” explained Rosario.

The sports that will be present at the camp are athletics, boxing, judo, Olympic wrestling, skateboarding, taekwondo, shooting and table tennis.

Olivero specified that this camp helps athletes to adapt physiologically to the schedule, which from Puerto Rico would be 13 hours apart from Tokyo and from Finland would be six hours.

“We will have our medical team present to attend to our athletes and the DAR team doing the logistics work with plans to enter Tokyo. This also includes training partners for athletes in combat sports such as judo, taekwondo and boxing, ”said the DAR director.

SPECIAL PERMITS FROM JAPAN

The sports that will be in Tokyo with special permits granted by the Japanese government will be sailing and basketball, the latter will take place prior to the Games with the teams from Japan and France.

In the case of diving, equestrian and golf, logistics are being organized, while rowing is quartered in Italy.

Among the requirements dictated in the Tokyo 2020 guide, which the Puerto Rican delegation must comply with, the support personnel are included, to participate in the Olympic Games, there are two PCR tests in 96 hours prior to entering Japanese land, daily control Through the COCOA application, deliver a work plan 14 days in advance and the non-use of public transport.

According to official data offered by the DAR, 28 athletes have been vaccinated.

THEY EXPECT TO BE WELL TAKEN

“We are happy and confident that our athletes will be well cared for and will arrive in the best possible conditions on Japanese soil,” said Olivero.

To date, Puerto Rico has a delegation of 34 athletes that includes Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (hurdles), Wesley Vásquez (800 meters), Ryan Sánchez (800 meters) and Andrés Arroyo (800 meters) in athletics.

In addition, women’s basketball, Yankiel Rivera (boxing), Rafa Quintero diving, Lauren Billys equestrian and Rafa Campos golf.

In judo Melissa Mojica, María Pérez and Adrián Gandía, while in fight there will be Franklin Gómez, in rowing Verónica Toro, in skateboard Steven Piñeiro and Manny Santiago, in taekwondo Victoria Stambaugh and in shooting Yarimar Mercado.

The list is completed in table tennis by Adriana Díaz, Melanie Díaz and Brian Afanador, along with the sailing representatives who will be Enrique Figueroa and Gretchen Ortiz.