GAP taps Japan's assistant trainer

The Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) tapped the youthful but veteran international coach Munehiro Kugimiya, whose credentials include being the assistant mentor and trainer of Japan’s gold-medal winning squad in the Team All-Around event of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

He was the assistant coach of Japanese mentor Kano Minoru where he helped train Japan’s men’s gymnastics team that scored 173.821 points to beat the United States (172.933) and Romania (172.384) to rule the Team All-Around event.

The 29-year-old Kugimiya, fresh from a similar coaching stint in Sri Lanka, is also a former member of Japan’s men’s gymnastics team and will team up with Romanian mentor Luminta Eftimius in training the national training pool made up mostly of six-year-old kids.

Kugimiya is personally handpicked by Japan-based organization Zippy Action Sports and Culture Foundation, which will shoulder the salary and expenses of his stay in the Philippines. He will train the boys’ and men’s gymnastics teams as Eftimius is coaching the girl's and women’s sides.

"I can train elite gymnasts and all the other children interested to learn. I plan to focus on high-performance training for the national men’s artistic gymnastics team to make them competitive in future international competitions,” said Kugimiya, who sees that his limited English is no hindrance in communicating with the national athletes.

Gymnastics was dropped in the 27th Myanmar Southeast Asian Games in December, forcing the GAP to prepare for next year’s Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championship in April Vancouver and the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

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