P1M PBC Open slated Sunday at MOA

MANILA, Philippines - The 41st PBC (Philippine Bowling Congress)-PSC-POC Open Championships gets going Sunday with the country’s leading players and rising stars clashing for top honors at the Mall of Asia in Pasay.

Cash prizes amounting to more than P1 million plus trophies will be up for grabs in the tournament which will feature only Filipino bowlers.

“Unlike in the past, we have kept the foreigners out and limited the competition only to local bowlers in our bid to develop young athletes with great potentials,” said PBC president Ernesto Lopa.

Members of the national team, led by 2006 world men’s champion Biboy Rivera and a couple of medalists in the 2012 16th Asian Youth championships in Egypt – Enzo Hernandez and Alexis Sy – will be among the participants in the tournament sponsored by the POC, PSC, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Department of Tourism and Boysen Paints.

Only 16 years old, Hernandez finished runner-up both in the 2012 Bevida-Storm International Masters Challenge and the Asian Youth boys’ doubles event, while Sy copped the Asian Youth girls’ Masters crown.

POC president Jose Cojuangco Jr. and PSC chairman Richie Garcia have been invited to grace the event.

Rivera, a veteran of the World Cup, won a silver medal in the last Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia.

Another Phl team member, Frederick Ong, also won the silver in the Masters event of the 26th SEAG.

However, bowling legend Paeng Nepomuceno will not be around to defend his title since he’s still undergoing therapy in the US.

Lopa, who is backed by fellow PBC officials Ronaldo Mendoza, Rodolfo Salazar, Purisimo Batin and Honorato de Leon Jr., feels it’s time to make a big move in a bid to further boost the development of the sport.

“There are many other young, upcoming bowlers around, but they have to get the right breaks,” said Lopa.

The men’s and ladies’ Masters champions will get P120,000 and P100,000, respectively.

Prizes are also at stake in other Masters Competitions – Associate, Seniors and boys’ and girls.