PH Shooting Team to hit top spot in SEAG

THE PHILIPPINE Shooting team is hopeful of a big performance in the coming 30th Southeast Asian Games to be hosted by the Philippines starting November 30 after it performed well in the just concluded 14th Asian Shooting Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Philippine National Shooting Association (PNSA) officials said they are satisfied with the results of the Doha meet, especially in the men's shotgun trap team competition.

Shotgun shooter Carlos Carag, who had the best score of 114 for the Philippine men's trap, along with Hagen Topacio's 113 and Eric Ang's 110, accumulated a total of 337 to finish seventh out of the 14 Asian teams which competed.

It was a score that hit the best mark in Southeast Asia this year.

Carag and Topacio met the minimum qualifying standard to qualify among the candidates for universality place in next year's Tokyo Olympiad.

Jethro Dionisio, who was also seeking to meet the minimum quota score was one shot short as he fired only 111.

However, Ang and Topacio already met the MQS in the Southeast Asian shooting or SEASA championships early this year in Jakarta Indonesia.

Trap coach Fernando Mercado said that the Philippine men's Trap team's score is equivalent to the gold medals in both the individual and team competition in the SEA Games.

The eight other Filipino shooters who competed in the Asian Championships were the rifle team, led by Olympic solidarity scholars Jayson Valdez and Amparo Acuña, along with Denise Basila and Sean Jayfred Ocampo; and the pistol team of Shanin Lyn Gonzales, Juliette Rose Arellano, Marcelo Gonzales and Angelo Michael Fernandez.

The team was headed by PNSA VP Irene Garcia along with rifle coach Julius Valdez, shotgun coach Fernando Mercado, pistol coach Susan Aguado and armorer Mario Dasalla.

The shooting team's participation was fully supported by the Philippine Sports Commission as it was not only an Olympic qualifying tournament for next Year's Tokyo Olympiad but also served as the last International exposure for the shooters seeing action in the 30th SEAG three weeks from now.