Filipinos haul in medals in international memory tiff

MANILA, Philippine – The Philippine Memory Team pocketed four gold, six silver and three bronze medals in the recently concluded Hong Kong International Memory Championships at the Lutheran Secondary School in Waterloo Road, Hong Kong this September 13 and 14.

Mark Anthony Castaneda, the first Filipino Grandmaster of Memory, snared three golds in Speed Cards, Historic/Future Dates and Names and Faces, a silver medal in the Spoken Numbers, and a couple of bronzes in the 30-Minute Binary and Speed Number.

On the other hand, GrandMaster Erwin Balines took home the other gold in the Abstract Images while copping four silvers in 30-Minute Cards, Historic/Future Dates, 30-Minute Binary Digits and Names and Faces and a bronze in the 30-Minute Numbers.

Balines was also named the first Sportsmanship Award.

Candidate-Grandmaster Axel Tabernilla, for his part, got a bronze in Spoken Numbers.

Aside from the Philippines, Mongolia and Hong Kong, memory athletes from China, Indonesia, Japan, India, Macau, South Korea and Canada also competed in the said event.

The team was organized by the Philippine Mind Sports Association.

“The competition here was very tough, especially the Mongolians who sent a very strong team.” said head coach, Roberto Racasa, also the founder of Philippine Memory Sports and course director of the Center For Global Best Practices.

The delegation was composed of: Delegation Head and Coach, Robert Racasa; Mark Anthony Castaneda; Erwin Balines; Axel Tabernilla; and Benjamin Fontanilla, who landed second position overall.

The Philippine Memory Team is supported by Hotel Sogo, W1N International, and Rotary Club of Pasig.

The competition was sanctioned by the World Memory Sports Council and founded by the Hong Kong Memory Sports Council.

It follows the WMSC standard of competition that features Names and Faces (15 minutes), Binary Numbers (30 minutes), Random Numbers (30 minutes), Abstract Images (15 minutes), Speed Numbers (5 minutes), Historic/Future Dates (5 minutes), Playing Cards (10 minutes), Random Words (15 minutes), Spoken Numbers, (100 seconds, 300 seconds, and 400 seconds) and Speed Cards.