Cebuano judoka off to Japan

CEBU, Philippines – The country will be sending a 12-man delegation including Cebu's Joaquin Nicolo Fernandez to this year's Asian Junior Sports Exchange Games in Tokyo, Japan set at the end of this month.

The RP squad is set to leave the country on the 23rd.

This will be the second time that Joaquin Fernandez will be competing in this event.

Aside from being his second time in the AJSEG, Fernandez is expected to perform much better this time as he just had his training in Thailand last month via the Asian Judo Youth Camp.

In the team with Fernandez are Concepcion Saracanlao, Al Rolan Llamas, Franz Darren Kim, Angelo Gabriel Gumila, Kenji Yahata, Andrea Camille Divina, Maria Victoria Ballester and Ma. Isabel Sta. Cruz.

Along with the athletes are Dr. Ricardo Danilo Corteza as team leader, Flordeliza Garcia as team manager and Christopher George Borja as the head coach.

The RP squad will be seeing action against Astana, Bangkok, Beijing; Delhi,

Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur; Sinagpore; Taipei, Ulaanbaatar, Yangon, Vientiane and host Tokyo.

More than a competition though, the event is held for character building and youth development by enhancing the ethnical skills and mental abilities of Asia's junior athletes and eventually deepening mutual understanding that transcends national borders. (FREEMAN)