Archers find new venue; Belmonte vows support

MANILA, Philippines - Members of the national archery training and developmental pool finally found an archery range they can call home as sportsman-businessman Jun Sevilla donated the FR Sevilla Archery Range in Novaliches, Quezon City.

With no permanent training venue after the UP Diliman administration failed to renew its memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Philippine Archers National Network and Alliance, Inc., Sevilla came to the aid of the Nationals as he immediately offered the newly constructed archery range as their permanent training center.

Nestled inside the 1.5 hectare lot in Barangay San Bartolome, the 95-meter archery range boasts of two-storey athletes villas, canteen and gym.

Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte and archery president Lenora Brawner headed the list of invited guests.

Vice Mayor Belmonte, also the chairman of the Quezon City Sports Development Program, promised to include archery in the sports the City Council is currently helping through financial assistance and exposure in both private and public sports.

“Now that I found that a world-class archery range is now available in Quezon City, I will include archery in the list of sports the City Council has supporting through the years,” said Belmonte, who also promised to donate computers and a refrigerator for the athletes.

The inauguration-cum-blessing was preceded with an inter-club tournament featuring teams from University of the Philippines, La Salle and Phl selection which included SEA  Games-bound Joan Chan Tabaniag, Rachel Cabral and Jennifer Chan.

Sevilla said he donated the archery range to help the sport in his own little way.

“ As you all know, archery is one sport that is best-suited to the Filipinos because it does not involve size like in other sports. We should focus and give attention to archery because the Filipinos have chances winning medals in international competition, like the Southeast Asian Games,” said Sevilla.