My Archery Journey: 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.