A top Korean coach has arrived to help Philippine archery get back on its feet after years of decline.
Ryu Ju Seng, a mainstay in the national coaching staff of a country that prides itself as the best in the sport in the world, has agreed to take part in an ambitious program aimed at getting the Philippine archery back on track.
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Ryu was brought in through the efforts of World Archery Philippines (WAP) president Bing Reaport and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) under its chairman Pato Gregorio, initially to help the archers' campaign in the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand next month.
Gregorio and the WAP, however, are thinking long term, hoping to convince the Korean coach to stay on for two more years at the very least to oversee a program that they hope can rebuild Philippine archery from the ground up.
Aiming high
"That's the goal," Gregorio told SPIN.ph. "We've always believed that archery is one sport where, given the right program, Filipinos can excel."
On that end, archery training centers are set to sprout all over the archipelago in the coming months. Candon City in Ilocos Sur already has one, so is Bacolod. Lipa City has expressed interest in hosting another.
Marikina is already the base of the WAP headquarters.
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