RETIRED Colonel Ariel Porfirio Querubin, the General Manager of the Philippine delegation to the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei City, Taiwan, gave an inspirational advice to a number of student-athletes taking part in the prestigious biennial games.
“I acknowledge the tough competitions ahead, with prominent university athletes and future Olympians from more than 180 countries seeing action. But first and foremost, you all can be ambassadors of goodwill in your own way,” said Querubin, who also is the deputy secretary general of the Federation of School Sports Association of the Philippines, the sole university sports federation in the country that is recognized by the International University Sports Federation.
“Just go out and play the game, love the game. Whatever the results are is secondary. Winning is not everything.”
San Miguel Corporation, through the efforts of its amiable chief executive Ramon S. Ang, is represented by Col. Ariel Querubin, who has been supporting the FESSAP in its participation in the Summer Universiade since 2011.
Through the years, San Miguel Corporation has been a major proponent of sports development in the country through its various sponsorships of local and foreign sporting events.
Among the student-athletes who attended the pep talk included those from athletics (who were led by former national team coach Joseph Sy), badminton, lawn tennis, Taekwondo, and table tennis, including those student-athletes who will attend the FISU Conference in Taipei City and FISU Volunteer Leaders in Kazan, Russia.
The Taipei Universiade is expected to attract more than 180 countries from around the globe, including sports powerhouses United States, Russia, People’s Republic of China, Japan, Great Britain, France, Korea, Germany, Canada, Italy, Australia, Brazil, Uruguay, Serbia, New Zealand and other nations from South America and Africa and Europe.
Once called the World University Games, the biennial Summer Universiade is a widely-publicized multi-sports event that is considered by most as the Olympics at the university level.
World-class student-athletes vie for top honors before eventually ascending to the quadrennial Olympic Games.
FISU, the international governing for university sports, sanctions and organizes the Summer Universiade, Winter Universiade and World University Championship in the various sports.
The FESSAP is taking part in the Summer Universiade for a fourth straight edition. In the Taipei Games, it is sending a 180-plus strong delegation that features the top university athletes nationwide.
Recognized by the FISU since 2009, the FESSAP debuted in Summer Universiade in 2011 in Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China and won a silver medal through taekwondo jin Samuel Thomas Harper Morrison.
Two years later in Kazan, Russian Federation, the Philippine flag was raised for the time ever during the medal presentation as Grandmaster Wesley So romped away with the gold medal in men’s chess. It was the country’s first and only gold-medal finish in its Universiade history. Only 39 other nations snared a gold in the 2013 Kazan Games.
In the 28th Summer Universiade in Gwangju, Republic of Korea in 2015, the Philippines settled for a seventh-place finish in men’s golf.
In the coming Taipei Universiade, the Philippines is competing in a dozen sports, namely athletics, archery, badminton, billiards, golf, judo, swimming, lawn tennis, table tennis, taekwondo, weightlifting and wushu. Graham C. Lim