BAGUIO City’s Giovanni Ola will be among the top para–athletes that will represent the country for the upcoming 2018 Asian Para Games.
Also known as the 3rd Asian Para Games, the event parallels the 2018 Asian Games, a multi-sport event for Asian athletes with disability to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Ola will be the lone Baguio para-athlete and will compete in archery. He has started training at the Baguio Athletic Bowl archery range since last month as he seeks to bring home a medal for the country in the weeklong event slated October 6 to 13.
Events to be played aside from archery are athletics, badminton, boccia, bowling, chess, goalball, judo, lawn bowls, powerlifting, shooting, swimming, table tennis, volleyball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, and wheelchair tennis.
Meanwhile, six Cordillerans were picked to be part of the Philippine contingent for the 18th Asian Games also hosted by Indonesia from August 18 to September 2.
Leading the charge is two-time world wushu gold medalist Divine Wally and 2014 Sanda World Cup gold medalist and 2014 Asian Games silver medalist Jean Claude Saclag from Lubuagan, Kalinga.
Also part of the Philippine wushu team are 2014 Asian Games and 2013 World Wushu Championship silver medalist Daniel Parantac, and Southeast Asian silver medalist Thorton Quieney Lou Sayan.
University of Baguio alumnus Jeordan Dominguez is the lone Cordilleran to be picked as a member of the Philippine Taekwondo Team to the Asian Games.
The 25-year-old Dominguez was a most valuable player in the men’s freestyle during the 10th World Poomsae Championships in 2016 and a gold medalist in the 4th Asian Taekwondo Poomsae Championship.
Benguet’s golf prodigy Paolo Luigi Wong completes the cast of Cordillerans seeing action in the biennial meet.
Wong, 17, will be part of the seven-man golf team was the lone Filipino qualifier to the prestigious IMG Academy Junior World Championships, will see action first in San Diego, California from July 10 to 13 before the Asian Games.
Wong was also part of the Philippine team that won bronze in the Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia last year.
Close to 335 athletes, coaches, and officials will banner the country’s flag in the Asian Games. (Roderick Osis)