National archers right on target

Subic Bay Freeport — Boosted by the impact of a great upset in Athens Olympics and a fifth place finish after the qualifier in the World Archery Championship in Madrid, Filipino archers are looking forward to a golden finish in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games.

" The strongest team ever assembled for the Games. We have world ranked women’s compound bow team and our recurve bow squad is the defending champion," said Jose Mari Vargas, archery committee chair for Subic. "But we’re pinning our hopes on all of them."

Archery has been enjoying a boom of sorts in popularity following the stunning victory by Jasmin Figueroa over world No. 3 Natalia Valeeva and the fifth place finish in the qualifying round in the Madrid world championship by the compound team of Amaya Paz, Jennifer Chan, Joan Tabanag and Abbigail Tindugan last June.

Paz herself finished eighth in the event and with two individual golds in the Olympic round and the qualification round in the Asian Archery Grand Prix in Bangkok last Feburary, she now looms as one of the top prospects for the RP team to win the gold.

The veteran female archers will carry the country’s colors in the compound bow division while Carlos Carag, Gil Gabriel , Adam Jimenez and Earl Benjamin Yap will compose the men’s team.

Making up the recurve bow team are Rachel Carbaral, Figueroa, Edwina delos Reyes and Katherine Santos while the men’s side is made up of Marvin Cordero, Christian Cubilla, Mark Javier and Florante Matan.

The local archers hope to use to the hilt their homecourt advantage at the Remy Field where they’ve been practicing since February, getting accustomed to the condition in the venue like the wind intensity and direction.

Compound bow team head coach Manuel Martinez said that the RP squad has been in top shape after undertaking rigorous training in the area while recurve bow team mentor Pedro Cortez, Jr., said his charges are "mentally and physically ready" to wage battle for the eight archery golds staked in the Games.

The two coaches said Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar are the toughest rivals by the Filipinos for top honors. Competitions in archery will start November 29.