Archery’s appeal: Give us OK to restart

World Archery-Philippines (WAP)­ is putting the foundation of a training bubble in place as it seeks to give its athletes the chance to train and gun for Olympic berths next year.

Though the guidelines, venues and coaches are all set an identified, the agency is still awaiting the green light from the government to proceed.

WAP secretary general Rosendo Sombrio said they tapped veteran coach Clint Sayo to gather national team members with the best chances of making the Tokyo Games.

“We thought Dumaguete is the best venue to put up that bubble because most of our national players live there,” Sombrio said.

Outstanding archers in that bubble will then be sent to Olympic qualifying event in Paris in June. It is the only qualifier for archery after the pandemic canceled all qualifying events scheduled.

However, WAP’s request from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for a reboot is still hanging, with only professional sports given the OK.

“We were among the first ones to request to reopen,” Sombrio told the Inquirer. “Cockfighting even got approved ahead of us.”

Sombrio said setting up health protocols is not difficult to do because of the individual nature of the sport.

Meantime, the national archers will have to sharpen their skills in the Indoor Archery World Series, a five-stage event which starts on Nov. 21-22 and ends on Feb. 27-28.

“The World indoors is an open tournament, so even those who are not in the national team can join,” Sombrio added. “But the important thing is that it would give exposure to the athletes,”