Jonathan Reaport and Ada Lagrada led a record-breaking spree for Filipino archers at the start of the 1st Asean Archery Youth Championships at the Dynamic Herb Sports Complex in Cebu City on Thursday.
Reaport and Lagrada set two of the six new national junior records, ruling the men’s and women’s Under-21 70-meter recurve qualifiers by shooting 639 and 613 points, respectively.
Reaport broke his previous record of 632 set at the World Youth Tournament, while Lagrada surpassed her own mark of 582 in a tournament held last January at the STI Gold Toe Archery Range in Marikina.
More importantly, Reaport’s score was just one point short of the minimum Olympic qualifying standard of 640, while Lagrada exceeded the minimum Olympic qualifying standard of 610 in the competition.
Aldener Igot Jr. topped the men’s under-18 recurve qualifying round with a new mark in shooting 646 points, shattering the old mark of 631 by Lawrence Enecio in the same Marikina tourney last January.
Naina Tagle also joined the record-breaking club by topping the women’s recurve under-18 qualifying round with a tally of 639 points.
The most bemedaled archer in the girls secondary division of the last Palarong Pambansa, Tagle, shattered the old mark of Giulana Garcia of 614, also in the same Marikina meet.
In the compound event, Alon Yuan Jucutan scored 683 points to get the top spot in the men’s under-18 qualifying round, besting his own score of 673 at the Ireland meet.
Rounding out the record-breakers was Cassandra Alexei Garcia, whose score of 688 in the women’s under-18 compound qualifiers was superior to her old record of 645 also set at the world youth competition.
Taiwanese You Yu-tong was the topnotcher in the girls der-13 recurve qualifying round with 686 points, while Mansour Alkelbi ruled the boys under-13 qualifiers with 657 points in the tournament.
WAP secretary general Rosendo Sombrio also acknowledged the support of WAP board members, including President Atty. Clint Aranas, Rep. John Peter Orbeta, Sheree Gotoaco, and Boone Ongchoco. They played a crucial role in backing the tournament organized by World Archery Philippines, which aims to elevate the level of play among youth archers in Asia.
