I'm at Philippine Star - Freeman Cebu Sports News

Cebuano Archers shine in Dumaguete tilt

by Caecent No-ot Magsumbol (The Freeman - August 31, 2012)

A screen shot of the sports article that appeared at the Philippine Star - Freeman Cebu on August 31, 2012

CEBU, PHILIPPINES - Cebuanos made their presence felt in the 2012 Silliman University Foundation Day's Archery Tournament by dominating two classes in Dumaguete City.

Medallists from the Cebu Archery Club

Cebu Archery Club's Luis Buyco defeated teammate Rogelio Tremedal in the boys' 30-meter recurve with 595 total points as against the latter's 499 as another Cebuano, Justin Abella, wound up third with 442 total points.

Tremedal actually had a better start in the first set of their final match, 25-23, but Buyco bounced back to win the next three sets, 23-21, 26-17, 27-23 for a 6-2 standing in favor of Buyco.

Another CAC bet, Joe Montalvan survived a close fight with fellow Cebuano Andy Abella, 6-4 in the adult compound-mixed 50-m event. Abella won the first set, 26-24 and tied the second set, 23-all. Montalvan claimed the third set, 27-26 then tied the fourth set, 25-all before sealing the final battle at 26-23. Overall, Montalvan earned 652 while Abella had 624 as another CAC entry, Alfred Lim wound up third with 572 points.

Another CAC bet, Chloe Abad settled with silver in the girls' bowman recurve-30-m won by Althea Dionaldo of host Silliman University - Dumaguete Archery Club. Dionaldo dominated all three sets for a 6-0 final standing out of their 29-28, 29-23, 29-24 encounter.

A pose at the target butt after receiving my silver medal and trophy

SUDAC also dominated the boys and girls' cadet junior recurve-30-m and the mixed adult recurve-70-m. The Mertos had a 1-2 finish in the adult mixed recurve with Marie winning the gold and Crisaldo with the silver while another SUDAC entry Ken Katada grabbed the gold. SUDAC also won all the medals at stake in the recurve-30 m events with Karl Mari, Daniel Ho and Kelton Pagaduan occupying the top three spots while the distaff side had Kiara Katada, Schienette Tingas and Cyra Hillditch.

Link to the article can be found at: Cebuano archers shine in Dumaguete tilt

Photo of the sports news article that came out at Philippine Star - Freeman Cebu on August 31, 2012

My Kuya Kevin's Video Clip

I am so blessed with the outpouring of support and encouragement from everyone in the family during my first-ever Archery Tournament. Thank you Mom, Dad, Kuya Kevin, and Ate Gabrielle. To Dad, who was not present, I knew he was monitoring the updates from Mom regularly. Ate Gabrielle also had to fly by plane early Saturday morning to catch up with the competition. Thank you also Ate Lenlen and Tito Bobbit for all the help and support.

I would like to thank all my team mates, coach and trainers, Titos, and Titas from the Cebu Archery Club. The cheers and support during the final moments when I was vying for the gold medal really helped me a lot. I was so nervous at that time. I thank God for carrying me through.

This video clip is my Kuya Kevin's production. As soon as we arrived at the house, he started working on it so he can immediately post it in Facebook as Dad was excitedly waiting for it so he can view it from the desert of Saudi Arabia.

Thank you Kuya Kevin for this! The production is just great. Love you!

Winning a Silver Medal at my First Tournament

 

At the Silliman University Founder's Day Archery Tournament 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Training with An Olympian

I have been hearing and reading about the Filipina Olympian archer, Jennifer Germaine Dy Chan for a long time. I was always awed by her stellar performance in both local and international archery tournaments.

 
Ms. Chan who hails from Dumaguete City and a graduate of Silliman University, was the lone archer in recurve who qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In February 2003, she won a bronze in the Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok for women’s 70 meter recurve. She switched to compound in 2003 up to the present. Her greatest achievement in archery was in the 2011 World Archery Championships in Italy where she ranked no. 6. She was also a Gold medalist in 2009 Southeast Asian Games and Silver medalist in 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia.

In the local front, she recently won a gold medal for Women Compound - Qualifying Round and another gold medal in the Olympic Round during the Philippine National Games held in Dumaguete City On May 30, 2012.

My Mom’s friend, Architect Dondon Sombrio, a Gold Medalist  in the Men’s Individual Compound during the  2011 SEA Games in Indonesia, made arrangements for Jennifer Chan to come to Cebu City and to train us for a weekend.

I cannot believe it… I was stupefied with the idea that  my trainer, is going to be no less than Jennifer Chan!

Coach Jing teaching me how to fix my bow.  She also corrected my form and advised me on ways how to improve my shooting.

 

The day finally came when I personally came face to face with Jennifer Chan. I was intimidated by her mere presence. But when I slowly came to know her, she turned out to be a very humble, gentle and soft-spoken lady. She taught me so many things about the sport and also she looked into my equipment and fine-tuned it. Together with the other boys in the archery club, we were trained by Jennifer, whom we now fondly call Coach Jing,  whole morning and afternoon for two straight days. It was the most productive time of my training. I am truly glad that Coach Jing took time out from her very busy schedule to fly down to Cebu and to train us for our first tournament.
 
Thanks a lot Coach Jing. I hope you can continue to mold me and the rest of the young archers to become better and  become the best archers of the country.

I was listening to Coach Jing as she checked my form and posture

Coach Jing checking our shooting positions

Coach Jing fine tuning my equipment

Coach Jing giving me pointers on how to do it right

With Coach Jing after my shooting practice

Listening to the instructions and tips given by Coach Jing

Seems like I look tired with my hands on my waist. I was just getting some breather.

More training tips for everyone in the team

With 2011 SEA Games Gold Medalist, Architect Dondon Sombrio assisting Coach Jing

Dinner with the Coaches

Coach Jing with Coach Jo Montalvan

With Ate Gabrielle. She is waiting for the time she will be allowed to start training with the compound bow

Training...training...training!

My First Archery Set

How did we find the Cebu Archery Club?

How It All Started

For many years, Dad had been encouraging me and my siblings to specialize in Archery as a sport but none of us kids was interested. Maybe because we don't see a lot of kids our age playing Archery. I enjoyed playing volleyball and soccer football. In fact, I played volleyball to represent my school in the Palarong Panlunsod. I play well and was happy about the sports that I am into. During summer breaks, I would enroll in volleyball and soccer football clinics to improve my craft.

 

Maybe, another reason why weren't sooo interested with Archery is because we never know of any friends and acquaintances in Cebu who play Archery. I'm sure there are people who play around because I see the Archery target butt at Cebu City Science High School where my older sister Gabrielle used to go to school to. I also see target butts at the Aboitiz Land along the Reclamation Road.

I knew that my dad used to play Archery during his younger days and dreamed to be a champion archer one day but that dream was elusive. He told us that his parents could not afford to get him a bow and arrow set and so he would just borrow the set of his parents' friends. Yes, he has competed in the Palaro on a borrowed Archery set. Obviously, with no personal set of bow and arrows to practice regularly, he never won in any competition. Poor dad! But knowing my dad, he would have been a champion if he had a set, even just an ordinary, simple Archery set.

When Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games was shown early this year, I watched it and started to have an interest with Archery. It was the character of Katniss Everdeen that struck me. She was the female tribute from District 12 who volunteered in place of her sister Primrose for the 74th Annual Hunger Games. She is the main character of the story. Katniss was close to her father and spent time hunting with him in the woods. There, he taught her about hunting, nature, and how to use a bow and arrow. While watching the movie, I kept on telling myself that I wanted to take up Archery and be able to shoot sharply like her.

The Hunger Games movie made me to think about Archery so often. Little did I know that everyone else in the family was thinking along the same line. Every time we remember the movie, whether at home or together in the car, or while being caught in a traffic jam in our going to and from our schools, the topic of dad's follow up about Archery always surfaces up. Mom, being a pistol sharpshooter herself, was also interested for us to learn the sports. She then started to ask around. Tito Wyndell Tapare, her Clerk of Court recommended us to his friend, Dondon Sombrio. Mom was able to talk to Tito Dondon and we were supposed to start training during the 2012 summer vacation.

Alas, there was a change in Dad's plan. He initially planned to move to Malaysia but suddenly decided to extend his work in Saudi Arabia. So within two days, we saw ourselves packing our luggage for the Jeddah trip. My Ate Gabrielle who just arrived from Memphis, Tennessee, USA was not even able to totally shake off her jetlag yet when we had to leave. Mom was not able to travel with us as she was also leaving for London, UK to attend the conference of the International Association of Women Judges.

I thought the topic on Archery was momentarily closed. But when Mom dropped by in Jeddah from London,they discussed with dad that I will start my Archery lessons as soon as we go back to Cebu.

In my next post, how we found the Cebu Archery Club.