Team Philippines kept hitting the bullseye and won nine gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals in the first two days of the Singapore Youth Archery Championships.
“Pumutok ‘yung performance ng mga bata. Nabulaga ang mga kalaban,” said World Archery Philippines president Bing Reaport Saturday morning, July 4, ecstatic that the Filipino archers under world-class coaches from South Korea have performed well in the Under-15, Under-18 and Under-21 categories.
The competition, which drew entries from China, Hong Kong, Chinese-Taipei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Philippines and Singapore, comes to a close Sunday with the individual events.
“We almost swept the team events in the first two days of competition here. Ang ganda talaga ng performance ng mga bata natin. Tomorrow, the last day, individual naman,” added Reaport.
The Philippines won three gold medals Friday in the Recurve U18 women through Leila Jell Cano, Compound U18 men through Mateusz Vaughn Johnson and Compound U18 women through Abigail Jane Lim.
Yesterday, the Philippines added six more golds in the Recurve U21 men’s team (Chass Mhaiven Colas, General Marc Bangoy and Rocco Lucia Gomez), Recurve U18 women’s team (Cano, Giuliana Vernice Garcia and Yohan de Guia), Compound U21 men’s team (Alon Yuan Jucutan, Jeremy Reaport and Kester delos Reyes), Compound U18 men’s team (Johnson, Zac Zayco and Rokai Timothy Tacudog), Compound U18 women’s team (Lim, Delos Reyes and Jaztin Maegan dela Cruz), and Compound U18 mixed team (Lim and Johnson).
The Philippines is also in the finals today in the Recurve U18 men, Recurve U18 women, Compound U18 men and Compound U18 women.
The positive result was an offshoot of the renewed drive by the PSC to boost Philippine archery, starting with the hiring of five-time Korean Olympic champion coach Ryu Su Jeng and Hong Sung Chil.
The Philippine delegation fully supported by the PSC was made up of 21 archers and four coaches, including Abbigail Tindugan, Romnick Balmeo and Paul dela Cruz. Other WAP officials in the delegation are sec-gen Mark Albren Santos, vice president Mark Wee, and board members Michelle Chua and George Garcia.
