Archers mum on chances

LONDON – Between them, archers Mark Javier and Rachel Ann Cabral have fired around 1,900 arrows since arriving here last week as they hit the closing stage of their training for the 30th Olympic Games.

The number of arrows fired from their imported, expensive bows tells of how serious, how determined Javier and Cabral are in their quest to make good in the biggest stage of all.

But although they left nothing to chance in their buildup under a dependable South Korean coach, both Javier and Cabral refused to predict about what lies ahead.

‘’It’s hard to predict. Let’s just wait for the competitions to begin,” Javier politely answered, before joining the rest of his teammates for the bus ride to the Philippine embassy for a dinner with the ambassador.

Like Javier, Cabral also begged off to tell what the future holds for her, except saying they will give their best shots from the moment they fire their first arrows.

‘’I’ll do my best. That’s for sure,” Cabral said.

And like his athletes, Korean coach Chung Jae-hun has not said a word about their chances, smiling only everytime one asked the same question.

Maybe, their bows and arrows will do the talking when they start stepping onto the hallowed grounds of the Lord’s Cricket for the ranking round on the same day the world’s biggest sports event opens with a glitzy welcome party on July 27.

But both Javier and Cabral were talking when queried about the good things they learned in their two-month training stint under Chung, a former world champion and a silver medalist in the 1996 Barcelona Olympics.

 The coach being young, and just recently retired from active competitions was a plus for the two Filipino archers,who said the fresh ideas he brought to them may do wonders for them .

‘’Newly retired lang siya kaya his ideas as an athlete ay fresh pa,” said Javier, one of three Filipinos now into their second Olympics, the other being long jumper Marestella Torres and weightlifter Hidilyn Torres.

Chung was taken to help train the national team in the World Cup of Archery in May in Utah, where both Javier and Cabral clinched their Olympic berths.

‘’Magaling na coach,’’ Cabral said of Chung, who stays in a private range of a sports-loving businessman in San Bartolome, Novaliches where the two Olympians have trained for almost two months, seven days a week, 12 hours a day.