Romanian To Train PHL Gymnasts!

Could the next Nadia Comaneci be a Pinay? Maybe not but we can, at the very least, try to find the next Bea Lucero.

The Philippine Sports Commission (PS C) has granted the request of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) to hire a foreign coach in the person of Luminta Eftemiu of Romania. Eftemiu will train and prepare the national gymnasts in the next eight months for the 26th Southeast Asian Games slated this November in Palembang and Jakarta, Indonesia.


Eftemiu will receive a monthly salary of $2,500 or P107,750, more than what Chinese fencing coach Wang Qing ($1600) or American beach volleyball coach Eric Lecain ($1500) will be getting.

The GAP hopes that Eftemiu's expertise and experience will help Philippine gymnasts figure prominently in the SEA Games.

She is also the latest in a growing line of foreign coaches being tapped to help the Filipino athlete reach their full potential. In the 80's, Ron Jacobs coached a Philippine national basketball team composed of talented amateurs into spectacular international victories while Cuban Raul Fernandez Liranza was the architect of Mansueto Velasco's silver medal in the Atlanta Olympic Games.

More recently, German Hans Michael Weiss has been tapped to lead the national football team (replacing the British Simon McMenemy) while Serbian Rajko Toroman has been in charge of the Smart Gilas National Team for the past 2 years.

The PSC is also looking at hiring foreign coaches to other sports like triathlon, wushu, windsurfing, shooting, taekwondo, rugby and football.   

More of the story, here.