A supposed participant to the Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 1 - Singapore

As part of getting an experience and exposure to world-class Archery, I registered to the Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Singapore together with some members of the Cebu Archery Club last July 2012. I know that such experience will be worthwhile. I was excited and was really serious about this that I even had to beg off a school semestral break travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and to Singapore last month with Ate Gabrielle and my first cousins, Ate Kara and Ate Nicole. I started saving for the trip but then later realized that there are better plans. Had I joined my wanderlust cousins and sister, I would not have been able to join the 2012 Cebu City Olympics last month for the pre-selection of athletes to the 2012 CVIRAA.

The schedule of the Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Singapore which was scheduled starting today, December 8 & 9 would not be possible as it will be in conflict with other Archery Tournaments that would give me better experience and exposure. The 2012 CVIRAA Regional Games held here in Dumaguete City from December 2-7 was considered to be a better experience for a starter like me. It will not be possible to have everything else I will be burnt out... hahaha... In fact CVIRAA was already in conflict with the schedule of Batang Pinoy National Games in Iloilo City on December 4-9. I am suppose to represent Cebu City in the Archery for Girls at the Batang Pinoy in Iloilo and till the last minute was planning out with my parents on how to catch up in the Games. But with the delays in the Games at CVIRAA caused by the untimely Super Typhoon Pablo, all hopes of making it to Iloilo went pfffft.

Because I was officially registered for the Indoor Archery World Cup, my name appeared in the list of participants. Probably, some people would raise their eyebrows why a 12-year old girl who know nothing about Archery is included in the list...jejejeje...(in the same category as the champions and great archers).

Well, now that you know that I registered, you will no longer be surprised and wonder in case you happen to see my name in the list.

 Click the photo to visit the Webpage of the Indoor Archery World Cup

Here's the Invitation Letter to Indoor Archers

And here, you will see the participants to the Indoor Archery World Cup in Singapore... Many great names from the Philippines and all over the world.

Click the link and you'll see who's Participant No. 178 - Hahaha...

World Indoor Cup 2013 Stage 1 - Singapore Participant List



List of Participants to the World Indoor Cup 2013 Stage 1 - Singapore



In a couple of hours, mom and I will be flying out of Dumaguete City... Nope, we're not flying to Singapore for the Indoor Archery World Cup. We're flying back to our home in Cebu. How I so missed my Kuya Kevin, Ate Gabrielle, Ate Fe, my cousins, my classmates, and everyone including our dear Justine.

It will be back to school in two days after a weeklong absence because of the CVIRAA... and there's a lot... real lot of catching up to do in my academics.

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

CVIRAA 2012 Archery Awarding Ceremony



Photo Credit | Spondon Trophies

"Victory isn't defined by wins or losses. It is defined by effort. If you can truthfully say, 'I did the best I could, I gave everything I had,' then you're a winner." ~Wolfgang Schadler

I always love to look forward to Awarding Ceremonies because it's about celebrating people and their victories. The Archery Awarding Ceremony this afternoon was about celebrating the triumph of the best of the best archers in the 2012 Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA). It's about how the archer prepared himself or herself for the tournament... it's about what one has for every arrow released into the air... it's about time, energy, money, and effort to reach this stage... it's about the sacrifices of the parents, families, teachers, trainers, coaches, friends... it's even about things that are never listed in the Archery protocols, rules, and regulations.

I felt good and honored to be at the awards ceremony. I didn’t get any individual medal except for a silver medal in our Team Event but I was honored to be there this afternoon!

_________________________________

 

"Love the game. Love the game for the pure joy of accomplishment. Love the game for everything it can teach you about yourself. Love the game for the feeling of belonging to a group endeavoring to do its best. Love the game for being involved in a team whose members can't wait to see you do your best. Love the game for the challenge of working harder than you ever have at something and then harder than that. Love the game because it takes all team members to give it life. Love the game because at its best, the game tradition will include your contributions. Love the game because you belong to a long line of fine athletes who have loved it.  It is now your legacy. Love the game so much that you will pass on your love of the game to another athlete who has seen your dedication, your work, your challenges, your triumphs... and then that athlete will, because of you, love the game."  ~ Unknown

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 Here are some of the medals waiting to be awarded to deserving and winning archers.

Winning means you're willing to go longer,

work harder, and give more than anyone else.

~ Vince Lombardi

I am very fortunate that at 12, I have what other archers could only dream about... I have the best coaches and mentors that one could ever have. With only around 6 months of handling the bow and arrows, I have joined this competition and managed to rank number 7 overall out of 28 best girl archers from the region. I wish to thank my coaches - Coach Architect Dondon Sombrio, Coach Joe Montalvo and Coach Jennifer 'Jing' Chan for all the help and sacrifices they have given me. I hope they will never get tired of coaching and molding me into a champion like them someday.

With Coach Jing (Olympian Archer Jennifer Chan). Though I have not reaped Individual medals during this tournament, I believe that with the excellent mentoring of my coaches like Coach Jing, I will be able to develop my archery skills in preparation  for future Archery Competitions like this...

Here's Rey Anne Flores of Cebu City flanked by two girl archers from Mandaue City. Rey Anne swept almost all the gold medals in the Girls Individual events. The Mandaue City girl archers also showed great shooting prowess.

Here are two boy archers from Cebu City standing beside the winner of this event. This could be Karl Mari, a bemedalled Archer from Dumaguete City

The Cebu City Girls Team (Trio) receiving their silver medals in the Girls Team Event with the rest of the team, coach, and chaperone. Members of the trio are -#1 - Rey Ann Flores (1096), #7 - Chloe Eunice Abad (867), and #11 - Saralee Garcia (807).

Hahaha... I was trying to run away from the cam but my mom was able to get this snap 

"Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back... play for her."

- Mia Hamm

The Cebu City Archers with the chaperone and coach. All the Cebu City Archers are from Gothong National High School. I am the  only one from Cebu Normal University - Integrated Laboratory School.

When you put on that jersey,

the name on the front is more important

than the name on the back.

~ "Miracle"

"When all is said and done,

it's not the shots that won the championship that you remember, but the friendships you made along the way." ~ Unknown

Archery CVIRAA 2012 | Day 5, Friday, December 7, 2012

Good morning everyone!

I'm posting this before leaving for the Silliman University Archery Range. This is the schedule for the Olympic round today.

• For the 1/16 Round - I am paired (Rank 7) with Rank 26: GN Libunfacil of Tagbilaran City
• For the 1/8 Round - whoever wins our 1/16 match will face the winner of the match between Rank 10: Jonalene Rae Clavano (Dumaguete City) and Rank 23: Johan Obena (Tagbilaran City)
• For the 1/4 Round - Winner of winner of Rank 7 & 26  vs winner of Rank 10 & 23

Photos and activities for today will be posted tonight...

 

Good evening everyone! I'm back with my lappie...

Dumaguete City, December 7, 2012, 7:35PM

As promised I'm back to document today's activities - the last day of CVIRAA 2012. I need to upload the photos as quick as I can as we still need to pack up our things for tomorrow's departure. Mom's body is aching after a week of action. She was my all-around support during the week-long competition. Without her, I could not imagine what would have happened. Thanks mom for all the support... and to you dad, too. Even if you're far away, I can feel your support all the way!

After giving a briefer (my partial post above) on today's event  just before we left the hotel this morning, we still managed to be at the Archery Range on time. Everyone was getting ready for the penultimate day of the Archery competition. When I saw everyone preparing their equipment, I saw a colorful blend of actions, reactions and emotions... There were victories and upset for some archers... others saw unexpected results... somte archers showed promising future in archery... some were marked as archers to note in future tournaments... others will be moving on and will no longer be eligible for future stagings of the CVIRAA... others came just for the fun of it... and a lot lot more that only the archers can tell. There are many sweet and victorious moments as well as emotional and heartbreaking times during the tournament. For me, being my first CVIRAA tournament, I gained a lot of experience and techniques in Archery which will help me in the future. i learned the need to have the depth of experience necessary to be a champion. I also saw the need to be physically fit and mentally alert in order to succeed.

I went to the range this morning with good disposition... (charge it to the green mango salad that Coach Jing gave to mom) ready to do my best in the last two events that I have for the day.

 

Girls Olympic Round

I was matched with GN Libumfacil of Tagbilaran City in the 40 m 1/16th Olympic round. After the set, I advanced to the 1/8th round against Jonalene Rae Clavano of Dumaguete City. I was at an advantage before my last arrow was released. But Clavano's last arrow stopped me to advance to the next round.

Here are some photos of the matches I had with Libumfacil and Clavano...

Here's the scoreboard for the 1/16th round

 

40-meter Team (Trio)

Three girl Archers from the Cebu City Team were selected based on our Individual Scores. The members of Cebu City Girls Team (Trio) were: #1 - Rey Ann Flores (1096), #7 - Chloe Eunice Abad (867), and #11 - Saralee Garcia (807).

The order on how we reached the Medal match:

• 40 Meter Team (Trio) 1/4th Olympic Round -  Cebu City (2770) defeated Tagbilaran City (1515)
• 40 Meter Team (Trio) Semi Finals Olympic Round - Our Team defeated Cebu Province Team (2423)
• 40 Meter Team (Trio) Medal Match Olympic Round - Our Team won the SILVER MEDAL. The Gold Medal was won by the Mandaue City Archers (2935) 

Here are some photos taken during  the Team Competition against Tagbilaran City, Cebu Province and Mandaue City:

 

Here's the Scoreboard for the Team Event (Girls) where we got SILVER. Mandaue City got the Gold.

Here's the Scoreboard for the Team Event (Boys) where our counterparts got the GOLD. Silver was won by Talisay City.

 

Awarding Ceremonies

Here are some photos taken during the Awarding Ceremonies.

The 2012 CVIRAA Archery Medals waiting to be awarded to deserving archers

With Coach Jing (Olympian Archer Jennifer Chan). Though I have not reaped Individual medals during this tournament, I believe that with the excellent mentoring of Coach Jing, I will be able to develop my archery skills in preparation  for future Archery Competitions like this.

Good night everyone! I will be missing CVIRAA 2012 and hope to see you in CVIRAA 2013.

Got to go... I need to help pack our things as our flight back to Cebu will be early tomorrow morning.

Archery CVIRAA 2012 | Day 4, Thursday, December 6, 2012

Today, I woke up, well rested, and ready to give my best for the 50 and 60-meter events. I have mixed feeling about these two events which could have been brought likely by my experiences during the Cebu City Olympics last month. The 50 meter event is where I got a dismal score of only 141 and luckily I still got a bronze medal during that City Games. The 60 meter distance is where I was excited because I got 232 points that was worth a gold medal. I know that this tournament is no longer the City Meet and I am now facing the best girl archers from the region that is known to top archery competitions in the country. My mom and dad are always telling me to keep getting experiences and exposure to continuously harness and develop my God-given athletic skills.

I always loved sports and I was into volleyball and football. In my 6th grade last year, I was a member of the CNU-ILS Elementary Girls Volleyball Team that participated in the City Olympics. I wanted to develop that sport so I enrolled last summer at the Ateneo Cebu for the Volleyball and Football clinic. I always wanted to be part of the Varsity team. I even keep a soccer ball in Jeddah so everytime I go and visit my dad during summer breaks, I have something 'sporty' to do while I'm there. There is a park beside my dad's villa in Jeddah and I would go out in the afternoons to play football there... You could just imagine a girl in her full black abaya cover kicking and playing with the soccer ball. Hahaha :-)

When I flew to Jeddah with my Ate Gabrielle last May 2012, things changed. Dad kept on nagging us to try Archery. Thus, a little more than 6 months ago, I first touched a bow and arrow and my sport life has never been the same again.

So when I went to the range this morning, I resolved to do the best I can despite my limitations -

Many of the other archers call me "Ate" thinking I am older than them. It could be because I am bigger than my age. So I would ask them their age and they would tell me that they're 14 or 15. I would quickly tell them that I'm only 12 and would want to add I'm still my mom and dad's baby... :-)

I'm overwhelmed to hear that many of the girls are experienced archers in CVIRAA, Palarong Pambansa and Batang Pinoy. I still don't have that depth of experience that they have.

I stood at the range this morning with the confidence that I am there because I choose to be there. I will not allow my limitations to control my Archery Journey. I had the full support of mom and dad and my siblings and I have the best coaches one could only dream of.

Here are the photos of my 4th day in CVIRAA 2012 -

Aiming for the yellow!

The running tabulation for the 50 m distance

After retrieving our arrows

Results of the 50 m

The result of the 50 m was a big improvement of my previous record at the the Cebu City Olympics. Today I got 192 and I ranked 6. That was 51 points improvement to my previous 141.

The following photos were taken during the 60 m event. You'll be able to see the shadow of the acacia trees and the archers' shadows which show that the sun was at its peak. It was past 12 noon and we were still shooting so the Game Official declared that we would have a quick lunch break after the 3rd set.

Photo shows the scores for the first set of arrows in the 60 meters. I was struggling with my sight and I had to make sure that I was able to compensate for my sight. Coach Joe left for Iloilo City to also coach for the other members at the Cebu Archery Club who are participating in the Batang Pinoy National Games.The next shots were not that good either so mom had to make a call to Coach Jing to ask her advise on what to do and I was advised to just remove my sight. My scores started to improve a bit but the pressure was on.

We had a quick lunch break at the after the 3 sets of arrows and  immediately resumed shooting after lunch.

The photo shows the tabulated scores for 60 m including ranking. I only got 187 points and I ranked 11th in this event. The 60 m event is where I got a gold medal during the Cebu City Olympics last month. That time I was able to get 232 points.

The table officials tabulating the results after the last arrow had been released, retrieved and scored. All the individual scores for each of the 4 events were tabulated and ranked accordingly.

The tabulated scoreboard that showed the final results of the 4 events - 30 m, 40 m, 50 m and 60 m. I got a total of 867 Individual Round Points that placed me in Rank 7.

After the two-day competition, here is the Top 10 Individual ranking for the CVIRAA 2012 Archery for Girls (30, 40, 50, and 60-meter events).  I placed 7th among 28 Archers! That's great! In the top spot is Rey Ann Flores from Cebu City. There were only 2 of us from Cebu City who landed in the Top 10. All the 4 Girl Archers from Mandaue City made it to the next 4 spots. Lapulapu City ranked 6th, Cebu Province took the 8th and 9th spot while Dumaguete City got the 10th highest individual score. Many archers are CVIRAA and Palarong Pambansa veterans. Next year, I can say I have experienced a CVIRAA Games and will then be considered a CVIRAA veteran... :-) 

Here's the performance of the Cebu City Archery Team (Girls) CVIRAA 2012. I'm proud to have maintained my No. 2 Ranking which I garnered during the Cebu City Olympics last month. I also improved my overall score to 867 from the 839 I got during the Cebu City Olympics held last month. All my other 3 team mates are from Gothong National High School. I am the lone archer from Cebu Normal University - Integrated Laboratory School.

A pose with the rest of the Cebu City Archers, Coaches & Chaperones.

We only see each other at the SU Archery Range as they are billeted in Valencia, some 8 to 10 kms away from the city. 

I received this afternoon the schedule for the 40 m Olympic Round that will be held tomorrow morning. For the 1/16 round I am matched with #26 - Libunfacil, GN from Tagbilaran City

Tidbits...

While I was at the Archery Range waiting for additional instructions, Mom quickly ran to the famous Sans Rival to grab some pasalubong for Kuya Kevin, Ate Gabrielle and cousins. She also went to the ticketing office to book our flight back to Cebu City.

 Good night everyone! I will rest early tonight in preparation for tomorrow's Olympic Round and the Team Competition.