PATTAYA, Thailand – Richard Gomez is returning to the Southeast Asian Games after 20 years, but the Leyte Representative’s stint will be a special one as he will be with her daughter Juliana in the biennial competition.
The Gomezes are competing in two sports: dad Richard is slated to see action in a pair of events – shotgun shooting sports and sporting clays and compak sporting; Juliana is vying in women’s foil in fencing.
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While Juliana will be making her debut, his father is making a comeback although his last SEA Games appearance was not shooting, but fencing. The elder Gomez was part of the men’s epee team that bagged the gold in 2005 in Manila.
The events that Gomez will be competing in are different from the Olympic events such as trap and skeet.
“They are all flying disc na binabaril, iba lang ‘yung presentation and timing. May konting difference lang pero it’s basically shooting a flying disc,” said Gomez in an interview prior to leaving for Thailand for the SEA Games.
Gomez, 59, has been known to dabble in different sports. Aside from shooting, Gomez has taken up fencing, rowing, golf, baseball, and volleyball. Until now, Gomez is still good enough in shooting to make it to the SEA Games team when a qualification competition was held.
“I never stopped shooting naman. Hindi siya physically strenuous. It’s more of concentration. Nung nag-qualifying kami, sali ako. Sige, qualify. I came out No. 2,” said Gomez.
Gomez said he will be competing in team events, and he is hopeful of landing a medal based from his performance in recent tournaments.
“Mukhang okay naman. Naka-dalawang gold tayo last month, tapos sa isang bronze at isang silver. I have a big chance of getting at least a medal,” said Gomez.
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