MANILA – A young cyclist will try his luck at landing a spot in the Tokyo Olympics.
Nineteen-year-old Patrick Coo is set to participate in the UCI BMX World Cup in Bogota from May 29-30.
Coo aims at becoming the second Filipino BMX racer to make the Olympics, nine years after Daniel Caluag qualified for the 2012 games in London.
But as early as now, Coo sees this upcoming stint as a dream come true.
“I am proud to be racing for the Philippines. It has been a dream,” he said on Wednesday.
Coo also said Caluag's stint inspired him to test the Olympic racetrack.
“Danny has always been a great man and inspiration to me. He is my biggest motivation. After watching him in the 2012 Olympics, it’s something that I also want to do. Put our country on the map,” he said.
“He always told me to ride for fun and raise my heart out and that’s all that matters,” Coo added.
Coo won the title in the 2019 Asian Juniors BMX Championship in Malaysia and became part of the Philippine cycling team last year.
The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will be in support of Coo's quest, even handing out almost PHP1.2 million as financial assistance to him.
An additional funding roughly at PHP321,000 was approved for his airfare, accommodation, allowance, visa fee, insurance, Covid-19 swab test, and entry fee as well as for bringing in his coaches, Ednalyn Hualda and Frederick Farr.
“We have a lot of talented Filipino cyclists and one of them is our teenage BMX cyclist Patrick Coo. We are counting on him,” PSC chairman William "Butch" Ramirez said. (PNA)
