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By Eirrol D. Manalo, TMTC
FOR 26-year-old archer Mark Javier, making it to
this year’s Beijing Olympics is a dream come true.
The native of Dumaguete City earned the slot in
the quadrennial meet on August by topping the Asian Continental
Qualifying in Xi’an, China last year.
“I’m very proud to be a part of the
Philippine team going to Beijing. It has always been my dream to
compete in the Olympics and I’m looking forward to it,” said
Javier in an electronic mail sent to The Manila Times over the
weekend.
Javier began his career in archery in 1998. He
won the National Indoor tournament in 2004 and 2006 and was a member
of the team gold winner in the 2005 SEAG held in Manila. He placed
sixth in the World Cup in Shanghai and finished ninth in the 2006
Doha Asian Games.
Javier, a graduate of information science at
Silliman University, is in deep training under SEA Games gold
medalist and fellow Silliman University alumnus Jennifer Chan. He
spends six hours daily in the archery range, jogs three times a week
and lifts weights twice a week.
“I think that my strength lies in good mental
management because archery is more mental than physical,” said
Javier. “But physical training is also important. In archery, you
also have to develop your strength because the bow is quite hard to
pull. I don’t neglect the physical aspect of archery.”
The National Archery Association of the
Philippines (NAAP) is planning to send Javier to Europe as part of
his Olympic preparation.
“I will be training at the FITA (International
Archery Federation) Archery Center in Cairo, Egypt and then, I will
go to Turkey and France for the third and fourth stage of the World
Cup,” said Javier.
Although he acknowledges the Koreans’ skills,
Javier believes that anyone can win in the Olympics.
“The Koreans are really good and they are the
best in the world. But anyone can win in the Olympics as long as you
set your mind to it. I’m training very hard because I know that
the Olympics is the biggest tournament that I will be participating
in my archery career,” said Javier, who looks up to Robin Hood and
Korean Park Sung Hyun.
“If I win an Olympic medal, I’ll show it to
the whole world because I am proud of it,” he concluded.
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