A total of 105 archers from around the country including three Cebuanos bid for spots in the national team as they contend in the 2017 Philippine National Outdoor Tournament-Philippine Archery Cup Finals today at the Camp Lapu Lapu grounds in Brgy. Lahug, Cebu City.
Leading the list of local hopefuls who will be putting pressure on the national team members are Vincent Villa, Sebastian Alex Blanco and Rogelio Tremedal of Cebu Archery Club, the City of Koronadal Archery Team of Christian Daut, Andrei Ladao and John Carlo Margarito Loreno and the La Salle Greenhills Archery Club trio of Von Bismack Ortiz, Euklein Eugenio and Christian Bernabe.
The National Team which is currently comprised of Youth Olympic Games gold medalist Gab Moreno, Kareel Hongitan, 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 are expected to tough it out with the aspirants as they are also fighting to retain their respective spots in the squad.
The 14 archers will have to sustain 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 members of the national team.
As per the rules of the World Archery Philippines, 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.