MANILA, 18 July 2003 — Financially anemic Philippine chess received recently a big shot in the arm from the First Gentleman Foundation that should make it kicking and competitive in future endeavors.
First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo and National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) President Mat Defensor have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) making the FG Foundation the caretaker of chess — from the training of its Top 10 players to the staging of tournaments, seminars, allied activities and securing of training venues and chess paraphernalia.
This is the first time in the history of the sport that chess has received such an all-encompassing assistance from one group in its continuing search for excellence and global respect.
Mr. Arroyo said he has earmarked chess as one of the beneficiary sports of his recently launched “Medalyang Ginto, May Laban Tayo” program which aims to aid and train promising Filipino players in non-traditional events such as chess, billiards, boxing, shooting, wushu and taekwondo, where Filipino athletes can excel.
Defensor said the First Gentleman’s pledge of support comes as “manna from heaven,” and has become a welcome morale booster to the likes of Ronald Dableo and Mark Paragua, youthful aspirants to the Grandmaster title.
“More than the financial support, we now feel that the Filipino people are behind us,” Defensor said.
Ta?amor Settles for Bronze
Light flyweight Harry Ta?amor fell prey to the hit-and-run tactics of China’s Zou Shiming and settled for a bronze medal in the World Amateur Boxing Championships at the Nimibutr Gymnasium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Zou, a slim 22-year-old, used the same tactics that powered him to an upset win over titleholder Yan Varela Barteleny of Cuba in an earlier round to beat Ta?amor 21-13 and became the first Chinese boxer to win a medal in the biennial meet.
Zou’s previous best result was a silver medal in the 2001 East Asian Games in Japan.
Taekwondo Myths Preparing Hard
Wanting to regain its once lofty billing as producer of gold medals for the country, Philippine Taekwondo Association vice president Sung Chong Hong begins fielding the national taekwondo team in several international competitions to boost its chances in the coming Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Hong said the national jins will try to bring prestige to the country not only in international tournaments, but also in the SEA Games as well. The national team is scheduled to compete in South Korea this month for the Korea Open; in Germany for the World Championships; another Korean meet in September; and in Paris for the World Taekwondo Qualification Tournament on Dec. 2-5.
High Hopes for Filipino Athletes
Steve Hontiveros, who heads the panel that will screen athletes who will comprise the Philippines delegation to this year’s Southeast Asian Games, said the country can surpass its achievements in Kuala Lumpur two years ago.
Whether it would be in terms of gold medals won or the order of finish in the overall standings is not clear, though.
“We’ll do our best to surpass whatever we achieved in Malaysia in 2001,” said Hontiveros, chairman of the SEA Games Technical Commission. The Philippines won 31 gold medals in the Kuala Lumpur Games for fifth place, falling two gold medals short of fourth placer Vietnam.
Spikers Claim Gold, Silver Medals
The women’s and men’s squads performed beyond expectations to capture the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the Inter-religious Peace Sports Festival, a 33-nation sporting event in Chungnam Korea, that aims to foster harmony among people of various religious beliefs.
The Philippines, which hurdled a younger but taller Russian selection earlier in the eliminations, swept Malaysia in the finals of the women’s volleyball event which attracted huge audience, including Filipino volunteers from the Service for Peace movement, at the Dan Kook University gym in this beautiful coastal province west of Seoul. The men’s team settled for silver but not after giving Chinese-Taipei a big scare and losing after five sets, 28-26, 18-25, 19-25, 13-25, 5-15.
