Local paddlers get big boost from Milo

MANILA, Philippines - It’s no secret the Philippines has yet to hit its stride in table tennis in the Southeast Asian Games but there’s no harm trying.

That precisely is Milo’s guiding principle in its continuing quest to produce a Filipino paddler who can match up well with the top players in Southeast Asia.

“We have great potential in table tennis given the right program and, most especially, the proper resources,” said former national player Oscar Santelices, now chairman of the Department of Sports Sciences of the University of the Philippines.

“We did have some few table tennis heroes before,” he added, referring to the likes of former Southeast Asian juniors champion and SEA Games bronze medalist Joan Rae Sanchez and Richard Gonzales, a silver medalist in the SEA Games.

“Given at least two to three years, we will be able to produce heroes like them,” he added.

The recent trend in the country is to beef up national team rosters with Fil-foreign talents and acquire the services of foreign coaches, which is also the case in table tennis in neighboring countries that have included Chinese-born players in their squads.

Santelices doesn’t object, but he is also a firm believer in homegrown talent.

“For now we still have a long way to go. The SEA Games alone is tough since some countries have acquired Chinese born players to play for them. But with the help of backers, like Milo, we can do it in the future,” he said.