A record-field of 175 will vie for the top honors in the country’s biggest invitational archery competition so far, the 1st Cebu Archery Open Tournament which starts today at the Aboitiz Sports Field in Subangdaku, Mandaue City.
The big names of Philippine archery led by Olympians Mark Javier and Jennifer Chan along with the likes of Aya Paz, Fermin Barrenechea, Kit Cojuangco, and Earl Yap will be seeing action in the event.
Dumaguete’s Crizzabelle Merto, the golden girl of the Palarong Pambansa in Tarlac together with her six-year-old sister Missy are also set to see action.
Cebu’s top archer, Dondon Sombrio is also expected to see action along with the Cebu Archery Club’s president Dondi Joseph, but everything will have to be finalized yet today as they will have their hands full being the tournament director and organizer respectively.
Movie and television actor and businessman Marvin Agustin is also adding spice to this event as he grabbed the opportunity to compete in Cebu especially that this is the first ranking tournament under the National Archery Association of the Philippines.
Whoever wins here gets the edge for the final screening of RP representatives to this year’s Asian Games in China.
Categories featured in this four-day event are the boys and girls’ novice for the 10-under archers, bowman for 12-13 years-olds, cadet (14-15), juniors (16-18), and the adult class for 18 years old and above.
Archers will be competing in two disciplines – the compound and the re-curve event.
With the competition venue open and windy, even the country’s most seasoned archers feel the event “is anybody’s game.”
“There’s no such thing as a homecourt advantage and we are happy about it,” Cojuangco said.
More than the honors, the ratings and the slots at stake for the RP team, archers hope that this event will be the turning point for Philippine archery.
Cojuangco noted that the world’s top archers only spend some hours and some days for training, yet they still win, and that is because of the numerous competitions they have in their countries.
Here in the Philippines, tournaments are limited and even ranking competitions are not fixed and are done only depending on upcoming international events.
The press conference for the event was held yesterday at the Maya Mexican Restaurant at the Crossroads.