By Jean Malanum/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Federation of School Sports Association of the Philippines (FESSAP) will send a lean but competitive contingent to the 30th Summer Universiade to be held in Naples, the largest city in southern Italy, on July 3-14.
The Philippines will compete only in seven sports — athletics, archery, diving, swimming, table tennis, lawn tennis, and taekwondo. A total of 18 sports are calendared in the tournament for university student athletes aged 17 years to 25 years old.
The FESSAP has announced that the first batch of athletes who have earned slots in the Italy-bound delegation are archers Jayson Mendoza, Allen Raquipo, Loren Balaoing, Andrea Robles, and Shanaya Dangla of the University of Baguio. They will be accompanied by coach Alan Elegado.
Making up the second batch are Mapua University tennis players Al Sastrillas Quiza, Jomari Gammad, Erinn Lance dela Cruz, and Hannah Geline dela Cruz. Head coach is Antonio Quiza. Also part of the team are Mapua University athletic director Melchor Divina and former FESSAP honorary president David Ong.
FESSAP Board chairman Alvin Tai Lian will serve as Team Philippines chef de mission, while newly-elected FESSAP president Angel Ngu will be the flag-bearer during the opening ceremony.
Robert Milton Calo, who heads the Universiade Preparation and Monitoring Committee that is composed of Joseph Amparo Sy, Maria Cecilia Sarmiento, Allan Soria, and Ann Janeth Garcia, will announce the names of the athletes from other sports as soon as he gets the final line-up from their respective coaches.
Lending support to the country’s participation in the 30th Summer Universiade are Bestank, San Miguel Corp., University of Baguio, Globe Telecom, Megaworld Property, and Mapua University.
The Philippines has competed in the past four editions of the Summer Universiade organized by the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU), which has a membership of 174 national university sports organizations.
Taekwondo’s Samuel Thomas Harper Morrison won a silver in Shenzhen, China in 2011 and chess Grandmaster Wesley So captured the gold medal in Kazan, Russia in the 2013 edition.
In 2015, the Philippines came close to a podium finish in men’s golf in Gwangju, South Korea, while University of Baguio’s Jomar Balangui pocketed the silver medal in wushu in Chinese Taipei in 2017.
Aside from the Summer Universiade, the FISU also organizes the Winter Universiade, the most recent was held in Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation on March 2-12 where figure skater Misha Fabian of Ateneo de Manila University made history as the first Filipino to have competed in the tournament.
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