Financial constraint hinders PWD archer from joining PAL

TWENTY-SIX-year-old Giovanni Ola of the Baguio Archers Club will not be able to join the Paralympics division of the first Philippine Archery League that will held in Koronadal City, South Cotabato from July 15-17, 2016.

Ola told Sun.Star Baguio he was looking forward to the competition and wishes to join the barebow and recurve senior category but lack of funds forced him from joining the two-day tournament.

Ola added he was not able to work for possible sponsorship to defray the cost of travel, accommodation and food since the invitation for the event was received on a short notice.

“I made a rough computation of P12,000 as my average expenses if I join the tournament but realized that even if I win a gold medal, the incentive from the city government would not be enough to defray my expenses,” Ola said.

Ola was referring to the new sports code of Baguio City which stipulates an incentive of P10,000 for individual athletes representing the city who won a gold medal in national competitions, 5,000 for silver medalist, and P3,000 for the bronze medalist while their coach will get P5,000, P3,000, and P2,000, respectively.

The former archery varsity of the Saint Louis University is now a fulltime assistant of Coach John Hongitan of the Baguio Archers Club in training archery enthusiasts and students.

Ola, standing on an artificial left leg is a native of Natonin, Mountain Province, honed his archery skill through long-range field during his varsity years at SLU.

In December last year, Ola acted as the aid and coach of Baguio’s wheelchair archer Agustina Bantiloc who joined the Philippine delegation during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ParaGames held in Singapore.