PH chess player Menandro Redor. Photo by Randolph B. Leongson
Hoping to pick up where they left off, the Philippines chess para athletes are loooling to surpass their six-gold medal haul in 2015 and aiming for seven this time in Kuala Lumpur.
But Menandro Redor, one of the country’s leading para athlete in chess, thinks that with the chess team’s stringent preparation it could even exceed its target in the 2017 ASEAN Para Games this month.
“We may get more than just seven golds because we had intense training for this. We joined different local and international tournaments just to prepare,” said Redor in Filipino. “Our coaches have been taking care of us and we’re so prepared that we’re sure of what we can accomplish.”
Redor, who will also serve as the Philippines’ flagbearer for the opening ceremonies, ha four-gold haul for the visually impaired 2 division, which is for partially blind participants, in the last staging of the biennial games in Singapore.
The PH chess team will also lean on wheelchair-bound FIDE Master Sander Severino and Henry Lopez as they gun to sweep the individual and team events of standard and rapid.
“We’ve already swept our category, so our goal now is to do that in the other categories. It also helps that we’ve got a women’s team now so it’s really possible that we can get the top spot this time,” Redor said.
The 32-year-old woodpusher isn’t discounting the capacity of the opposition with Indonesia posing the biggest threat to the Philippines’ quest for gold.
But Redor is confident with what the chess team can deliver for the delegation, saying, “In chess, we’re sure that we’ll bring home golds.”