Archery holds first online event with Olympic distance

Philippine arche­ry wanted to join the growing number of sports using technology to run around the coronavirus restrictions.

It hit the bull’s-eye on Friday as Jason Feliciano emerged as the first-ever champ of the World Archery-Philippines (WAP) virtual championship that was streamed live using multiple cameras.

“We thought about it because we don’t want our athletes to be on stand-by,” said WAP secretary general Rosendo Sombrio of the meet reserved for national athletes.

The tournament rode the bandwagon initiated by taekwondo, which held poomsae and speed-kicking, chess and pole vault, among others.

Feliciano, who hails from Dagupan City, bested Phoebe Amistoso of Sibulan, Negros Oriental, in the final of the recurve Olympic round which was fought over a distance of 70 meters.

Olympian and Southeast Asian Games gold medalists Rachelle dela Cruz and husband Paul Merton dela Cruz missed the tournament due to a lockdown order in the barangay that covers their home range in Novaliches, Quezon City.

Sombrio said the couple had to move to Bulacan but they don’t have a range setup there.

Many-time Olympian and coach Jennifer Chan will battle Andrea Robles of Manila for compound gold over the weekend.

For the test event, the archers competed via the usual knockout style employing cameras focused on the participant and the target.

Sombrio said they plan to stage a nationwide tournament next month using technical officials and requiring three cameras for each participant including a moving camera to track the shot.

A virtual archery tournament was first staged by World Archery recently but that event only held competitions from a distance of 18 meters.

“We are the first to hold a virtual event employing the Olympic distances,” Sombrio said.