INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines -- The National Collegiate Athletic Association will deliberate next semester on whether to include boxing, fencing, archery and shooting in its list of demonstration sports, an official said Tuesday.

?The national sports associations of these sports proposed the inclusion in the NCAA but we have decided to meet them after the basketball season,? said Jose Mari Lacson, management committee chair of NCAA season 85.

?We hope to include them all and make them as demo sports either this season or the coming season,? added Lacson.

To become a demo sport, a member school of the NCAA should head each sport.

?We will know the interest of students by the number of participants. That?s why we put it in the demo sports. When the school is ready to form a team, then that?s the time it becomes a regular sport,? Lacson explained in an interview.

Lacson said that NCAA can be a good training ground for national athletes in these Olympic sports.

?Filipino athletes are talented and outstanding. What we need is proper training because with proper training, we can really improve a lot,? said Lacson.

?These are sports the Philippines has great potential in the Olympics. Our aim is to help and improve our national status in international sports."

According to Lacson, the NCAA gave birth to some renowned Filipino international athletes like in track and field.

Meanwhile, swimming, volleyball, and chess will commence in the first semester aside from basketball, which began earlier. Chess, headed by Mapua Institute of Technology, will begin on July 25 at SM Manila.

Football, lawn tennis, beach volleyball, table tennis, and track and field will be held in the second semester.