By BRIAN YALUNG
The Philippine bowling team is finally settling in after initially being flagged for excess baggage en route to the 2018 Asian Games. The reason behind this is the number of bowling balls each player brought along for the trip.
Bowling coach Biboy Rivera explained through an interview with Radyo Pilipinas that the reason behind the need to bring multiple bowling balls was due to the bowling patterns and lane conditions that would be used in the tournament.
“Normally kapag nagbiyabiyahe kami, meron kaming six (6) bowling balls per player na dinadala. Para po yan sa patterns na gagamitin sa tournament. Meron po tayong medium saka meron tayong long pattern. Meron po tayong ginagamit na iba’t ibang klase ng bola para po dun sa iba’t ibang pattern,” Rivera explained.
“Ang allotment po for each bowler ay 30 kilos. Yun lang yung kasama sa ticket at kinakailangan pa po namin na mag-secure ng excess baggage para madala namin lahat ng equipment na kailangan,” he added.
The whole thing was eventually resolved through the help of liaison officers in Jakarta and Philippine Airlines personnel.
The PH keglers will start getting themselves acquainted with the lanes starting Aug. 20. The bowling event will officially start on Aug. 22 with the women’s trios event being the first event.
“Honestly speaking po it will be challenging for us. Dahil po binawasan ‘yung medals at stake for this Asian games at kasama na rin po ‘yun sa sa pagdagdag ng mga events na ‘di tayo gaano kalakasan,” Rivera said.
One of the new events is the 6-man team.
“First time lang po siya ini-ntroduce in any games. So ‘yun po, medyo optimistic kami sa bagong scoring na ginawa dahil kahit papano po makakatulong sa mga bowlers natin,” Rivera explained.
Rivera also added how they tried to cover all the bases for the game.
“We tried to cover lahat ng bases when it comes to aspects of the game (i.e. like mental, physical and strategies), kung paano mag-a-adjust dun sa breakdown ng mga patterns. Hopefully yung decision na gagawin namin ma-execute ng mga bowlers and ‘yung magiging communication namin sa laro magiging maganda rin para mas maging malaki tyansa namin makamedalya.”
Rivera said that a perennial favourite would be Korea. However, he believes that all countries like Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Chinese-Taipei have their hidden aces and can pull off some surprises.
“Hiwalay po ang DPR at South Korea and andyan po ang Japan kung saan malakas sila sa team event. Pero ang suspetiya namin sa games na ‘to, dahil na try na nga po namin yung lane patterns, medyo challenging siya. Baka ‘yung Chinese-Taipei ang medyo maging surprise,” Rivera ended.
