AFTER A successful outing for the national youth bowling team in Michigan, junior bowler coach Biboy Rivera believes the young bowlers will boost Philippine bowling’s campaign in three remaining overseas tournaments this year.
Having taken a bronze medal in the boys’ team event in the 2018 World Bowling Youth Championship in Detroit, Michigan, USA, which was held from July 24 to Aug. 3, the Philippine Bowling Federation (PBF) is setting its sights on winning gold medals in the Indonesia Asian Games, the upcoming World Men’s Championship in Hong Kong, and the Asian School in Taiwan.
“A bronze that glitters like gold. I’m very happy and satisfied with their performance,” said the 44-year-old Rivera, referring to the recent performance of his boys youth team composed of Kenzo Umali, Merwin Tan, Praise Gahol, and Ivan Malig in the World Youth Championship.
“They surpassed my expectations in terms of unity, playing bowling, and behavior. We never expected to win — marami kasing malalakas (there were many strong teams) and this is an eye opener.”
The last time the Philippines won a medal in the World Youth Championship was in 1992, when Angelo Constantino captured the singles gold medal in Venezuela.
“So there is no other option but to go up. They feel and realize na kaya pala nila (that they are capable of it), so our next goal is gold. That’s our target in these next tournaments — gold,” added Rivera, who thanked the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Boysen, Cebuanna Lhuiller, PAGCOR, Smart, and Comfoods for their support to the bowlers.
Umali said the bronze medal achievement should motivate them in future competitions.
“It is something amazing that we achieved but it is not something that we should let get into our heads. That is something that [should] motivate us to continue playing the sports we love,” said Umali, noting they should raise the bar higher in the next tournaments.
“For the next tournaments, yes, we could [turn that bronze into a gold],” added Umali. “I think the next time we go out, we will be more confident and we will be more reassuring of ourselves.”
Umali and Tan are among the 12 members of the Philippine men’s and women’s team that will fly this week to Palembang, Indonesia to compete in the 2018 Asian Games under head coach Paeng Nepomuceno and his assistant Rivera.
Umali will then will join the youth team in the Asian School Championship in Taiwan on Sept. 30 to Oct. 9.
Then he and Tan will join Jomar Jumapao, Raul Miranda, Kenneth Chua, and Enzo Hernandez to compete in the World Men’s Championship in Hong Kong on Nov. 23 to Dec. 5.
Besides the World Youth bronze, the Philippine Bowling team under the program of the PBF also won the 53rd World Cup in Mexico under Krizziah Tabora last November, and two silver medals in the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games last September in Turkmenistan.
For the Indonesia Asian Games, the bowling competition is set on Aug. 22 to 27. The men’s team is composed of Chua, Hernandez, Jumapao, Tan, Raoul Miranda and Umali, while the women’s team is made up of Dyan Coronacion, Alexis Sy, Liza Del Rosario, Lourdes, Arles, Lara Posadas, and Rachelle De Leon.
