A MODEST goal of retaining their no. 3 status in the World Memory Championship is what members of the Avesco-Philippine team aim for when they compete in the Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 meet in London.
Playing coach Robert Racasa said in Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum it would be a bonus for the Filipinos if they ended up winning the overall team title like they did in the 1st Hongkong Open Memory Championship.
“But any which way we can, we just want to prove na tayong mga Filipino can be at par with the top memory players of the world,” said Racasa.
The man considered as the Father of Philippine Memory Sports was accompanied in the session presented by Shakey’s and the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corporation by young Jamyla Domingo Lambunao, First Filipino Grandmaster of Memory Mark Anthony Castaneda, and Anne Bernadette Bonita.
The Filipinos finished third out of 24 countries in last year’s edition of the meet behind Germany and Sweden.
Now, they have to do it against a bigger field of 32 countries with 123 participants.
“Kaya puspusan talaga ang training namin,” said Castaneda, who sampled the audience of his act through a deck of cards.
“We trained not only mentally but also physically. We also does push up and jogging before kami mag-train,” he added.
The team, according to Bonita, is set to depart for London on Nov. 24 to get members acclimatized with the cold weather.
Other members of the squad are GM Erwin Balines, Axelyancy Cowan Tabernilla, and Mikhaila Paraiso.
The meet features 10 events, namely, Names and Faces (5 minutes), Binary Numbers (5 minutes), Random Numbers (15 minutes), Abstract Images (15 minutes), Speed Numbers (5 minutes), Historic / Future Dates (5 minutes), Playing Cards (10 minutes), Random Words (5 minutes), Spoken Numbers (100 seconds & 300 seconds) and Speed Cards.
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