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Friday, March 29, 2024

Fessap sending team to 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei

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By Graham C. Lim

PREPARATIONS for the Philippines’ participation in the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei City from August 19 to 30, 2017 this year are going smoothly.

There’s so much excitement over the biennial spectacle that showcases the top university athletes from around the world, including sports powerhouses Australia, United States, Russia, China and Japan.

The Federation of School Sports Association of the Philippines is again sending a lean but strong delegation of athletes and officials to the Taipei Universiade, a follow-up to its participation in the three previous editions of the Summer Universiade—Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China in 2011; Kazan, Russia Federations in 2013; and Gwangju, Republic of Korea in 2015.

The University of Cebu will represent the country in Table Tennis during the Taipei conclave. The school team coached by Jessica Honoridez recently topped the National PRISAA competitions that served as the local qualifier to the Taipei Universiade.

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Cebu City will be represented in the weightlifting event as former University of San Jose Recoletos athlete Kelle Kay Rojas has been tasked to organize a Universiade qualifier in the first week of February. A total of six weightlifters – four male and two female— will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to wear the national colors in the Taipei Universiade.

The weightlifting qualifying tryout is in cooperation with Cebu Weightlifting Association, headed by Atty. Baldomero Estenzo and CESAFI Commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy, chairman and president, respectively.

Sports patron Alvin Tai Lian, the Philippine Head of Delegation to the Taipei Universiade, and FESSAP officials, led by president David Ong and Professor Robert Milton Calo, Chair of the Universiade Monitoring and Preparation Committee, will visit Cebu City in mid-February to honor the athletes from the Queen City of the South that qualified for the Summer Universiade in Taipei City.

The name of the Philippine flagbearer to the World University Games in August will be announced during the first week of February. 

“We are in constant coordination with the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., which have been very supportive in building more classrooms for the public schools, particularly in the provinces,” said David Ong.

In Iloilo City, FESSAP coordinator Ivy Santa Ana from PRISAA Region 6 has been tasked to choose the 10 most outstanding swimmers from Visayas Region through a qualifying tournament.

In Manila, the FESSAP is organizing a qualifying tournament in wushu, a sport that will make its debut during the Taipei Universiade. 

Master Lou Mei Cheng and Gladys Sia has been tasked to select 10 athletes—five male and five female —for the Universiade.

Master Lou and Sia recently participated in the 11th Zhengzhou China International Shaolin Wushu Festival held in China in October last year. The delegation brought home three gold medals.

FESSAP athletes will compete in 12 events in the Taipei Universiade. These are the athletics, archery, badminton, billiards, golf, judo, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, lawn tennis, wushu, and weightlifting.

The country, through the initiative of the privately-funded FESSAP, romped away with a silver medal in taekwondo through Samuel Thomas Harper Morrison in 2011 in Shenzhen and a gold medal in men’s chess through Grandmaster Wesley So two years later in Kazan.

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