CEBU, Philippines—The Philippine Accessible Disability Service Inc. (PADS) continues to make sports accessible for persons with disabilities (PWDs).
JP Maunes, the founder of PADS, guested recently at CDN Sportstalk to speak about Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) and the champion athlete they have in their fold.
That para athlete is Kent Mandawe Tumangan, who is now a member of the national team.
“In the PADS adaptive sports program, our vision is to make sports a reality for Filipinos with disabilities,” said Maunes.
OCR is a sport wherein a competitor must overcome various physical challenges in the form of obstacles.
“We want to see PWDs appear or compete alongside other athletes, even those without disabilities,” he added.
One of their top athletes in OCR is Tumangan, who is coached by Carlo Sumayang, Spartan SGX and World Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) coach
Tumangan started as a member of the PADS team sports. He said Maunes introduced him to OCR.
“I like it because it is individual sports,” said Tumangan.
In his first try, he won, so that’s where he got motivated to continue training for OCR.
With coach Sumayang leading his training, everything is looking good for Tumangan as he is set to compete in more prestigious competitions.
OCR got a boost in the past years largely because of the Spartan Race.
PADS then introduced the sport to some of its para athletes.
“We are supporting the philosophy of ‘sports for all’,” said Maunes.
“When our athletes wanted to join other sports, we support them. When they saw OCR as an emerging sport, they wanted to join. So we supported them because we wanted to make it a reality for them.”
PADS also offers dragonboat, wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, among others.
Coach Sumayang, meanwhile, gave his advice to those who want to try OCR.
“Wala’y impossible if you really want to join,” he said.
“Training lang, focus on run. OCR is more on running, around 70 to 80 percent. Kaya ra gyud bisan kinsa mu race sa OCR.
Want to try?
Maunes said there’s an OCR course in Pahara underneath the Marcelo Fernan Bridge in the Mandaue City side. Some of his PADS members train in this course.
/bmjo
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