Archery’s ‘gen-next’ trains in Dumaguete bubble

A bunch of teenagers described as “generation next” for Philippine archery has set up camp in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, with the collective target of nailing a spot in the Tokyo Olympics.

Sisters Pia and Gabrielle Bidaure, Carson Hastie and Phoebe Amistoso, all based in Dumaguete City, have started training under a bubble format with their coaches led by Clint Sayo.

Jason Feliciano of Dagupan is still recuperating from dengue fever but is expected to join the team by next week.

United States-based Riley Silos won’t join them but will instead rendezvous with the squad in the international training camp slated in April in Chinese Taipei.

“This is different now compared to previous Olympic qualifying because we are pinning our hopes on young archers who are between 16 to 18 years old,” World Archery-Philippines’ Rosendo Sombrio said.

The final Olympic qualifier will be held in June in Paris, France. Making it as a team would be an uphill battle, according to Sombrio, but he’s got high hopes on individual slots.

“So far only four slots are available for teams because several countries have already qualified,” said Sombrio. “Archers who will make it as a team will free up slots in the individual category.”

Sombrio said the archers, who are all competing in recurve, are all products of their grassroots development program.

Archery’s bubble was the only one approved so far by Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases aside from the “Calamba-bubble” for boxers, taekwondo jins and karatekas eyeing slots in Tokyo.

“We have been applying for a long time to get the approval,” said Sombrio. “But maybe the reason we got approved is that most of the archers live in Dumaguete.”

They have set up camps in Perdices Sports Stadium and Dumaguete Archery Center for the lock-in training.

With the exception of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro, the country has always had representatives in the Olympics.