“The entire sports community can now heave a sigh of relief with this approval,” he said.

“With this good news, our athletes can now look forward to serious training and preparations for two major competitions,” Tolentino added.

The new development has been announced by Harry Roque allowing the POC’s request of priority in the vaccination of national athletes and coaches for the Tokyo bid and the Hanoi 31st Southeast Asian Games.

As such, the national athletes, coaches, delegates, and officials to both events are included under the category of Priority Group A4.

Tokyo Olympics are set to happen from July 23 to August 8 while the SEA Games are set from November 21 to December 2.

Also, Roque expressed his gratitude to the government for the quick response to the needs of the athletes bound to represent the country.

“Bring home the gold from Tokyo,” he said.