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Monday, May 09, 2005
Padilla: Wushu is Cordillera's gold mine
By Nars Padilla
FOR the past five years sport's Wushu, an ancient Chinese martial arts has become an inspiring source of gold, silver and bronze medals for the Cordilleran Wushu-Sanshou warriors. It has brought fame and glory not only to our region and this beautiful City of Baguio in particular, but to Philippine sports in general.
Thanks to the epidemic level on interest and dedication of Tsui Tong Candelaria, president of the Wushu Federation of the Philippine, Baguio-CAR Chapter and also a frontline coach in the RP Wushu training pool.
Tong together with the meager support from friends started from scratch - his drive to propagate wushu in the locality. On the way, he found a group of highlanders whose passion for the sport helped immensely in its development.
On May 11 and 12, wushu will take the center stage at the Atrium, SM City Baguio with over 100 warriors under the klieglights. The red letter event will showcase the 2005 Wushu Baguio-CAR Regional Championships with Tong, Joy Yasol, WFP Baguio-CAR Secretary General and University of the Cordillera (BCF) coach and former internationalist Mark Sangiao at the helm.
I met Tony and Joy at the Atrium last Monday while the duo were making their physical arrangement plan for the big event.
Tong was looking very athletic with his jogging togs. He was all smiles when he said everything is ready! He expressed optimism that the championships will be very exciting and very competitive considering the number of participants. "This will be another opportunity for us to discover potential wushu talents for our regional and hopefully national training pool," he said.
Tong said a group of players from the Philippines National Wushu Team led by head coach Yu Zy Bu from the Peoples Republic of China. Yu is in the country to assist our wushu team in preparation for the Southeast Asian Games to be held in our shores from November 27-December 5, this year.
The "taulo" exhibition will portray grace and form and agility of the players in nanquan, tauquan, chanquan, gadgel and cajun.
The wushu warriors who will bos, kick and wrestle it out on the mat according to Joy are prominently from the University of Baguio, Cordillera University, Saint Louis University, Pines City National High School, Baguio City National High School and the Wushu Central Gym in Baguio. Core groups from Ifugao, Benguet and Mountain Province where wushu -sanshou has gained foothold and a consolable degree of popularity are also in the roster of competitors.
The race for honors will focus on the senior and junior divisions of the tournament for both men and women. At stake are grand prizes for the top winners in the 48-kh, 52-kg, 56-kg, 60-kg, 65-kg and 70-kg categories.
Tong said, "the top three winners in each category will represent the Baguio-CAR wushu team to the 2005 National Wushu Championships billed in Manila on May 28-28. The special event will serve as the skill and talent yardstick for membership the wushu national training pool who will leave for Beijing, China in June for a more rigid training grind and exposure. The RP wushu squad will also test its mettle in the Asia Junior wushu Championships scheduled in Vietnam sometime in November before the 23rd SEAG edition on the country.
It is of course with pardonable pride to know and to herald that majority of the wushu-sanshou warriors in the Philippine National Team are from the city and the Cordillera. By and large, this simply means that this mountain paradise is a "gold mine" for wushu sports. There was time sport judo was also supreme out here until we lost the late RP olypian Gerry Di$o. God bless his soul. Also, blame it on leadership intrigues. The other Olympian we have ever produced in this part of the country was ace trackster Hector Begeo from Bauco, Mt. Province who is now retired from athletics. He is now enjoying the fruiots of his sweat and sacrifices "Down Under," (in Australia) the land of milk and honey.
From this corner, a hearty welcome to all the wushu players and their officials. Enjoy every minute of every hour and every hour of the day while you are in the City of Pines. Mabuhay tayong lahat!
(May 9, 2005 issue)
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