PH Nat’l Outdoor Archery to be held in Camp Lapu-Lapu

OFFICIALS from the World Archery Philippines (WAP) and the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) have agreed that the 2017 Philippine National Outdoor Archery Tournament and Philippine Archery Cup Finals will be held at the Camp Lapu-Lapu Grounds in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, on Feb. 26 to 24.

In a text message sent by CCSC Commissioner Allan Delantar to Cebu Daily News, he said that Mr. Rosendo Sombrio of WAP and the CCSC have agreed to work together to help the training of veteran archers such as Youth Olympic Games (YOG) gold medalist Gab Moreno and Kareel Hongitan, who are also fighting for their respective slots in the national team.

“CCSC is supporting the event because this is one of the sports that we are having in the ongoing grassroots training program at the Cebu City Sports Institute,” Delantar said.

Aside from Hongitan and Moreno, the national team is currently comprised of Allen Raquipo, Syd Fraginald, Nicole Tagle, Mary Queen Ybanez, Paul dela Cruz, Jennifer Chan, Rachelle dela Cruz, Andrea Robles, Niron Concepcion, Joseph Bague and Flor Matan.

They are expected to tough it out with aspiring national team members as they have to maintain a minimum qualifying score of 630 and 620 for men’s and women’s recurve and 670 and 660 for men’s and women’s compound respectively to maintain their status as a member of the team.

As per the rules of WAP, in an instance that an archer fails to reach the qualifying score twice, he/she will be automatically stripped from the list of the national pool and will be replaced with another archer who is next in rank.

The event will also search for potential archers who will be donning the country’s colors for next year’s edition of the Youth Olympic Games at Buenos Aires, Argentina in August 2018.