ADA Sofia Lagrada got a taste of her own medicine at the hands of former Batang Pinoy standout Charlene Mae Santos, who gained sweet revenge over her fancied rival by ruling the women’s under-21 event of the well-attended first leg of the 17th Archery Grassroot Development tournament over the weekend.
Santos, 19, who suffered a heartbreaking 4-6 semifinal loss to Lagrada in last year’s second leg of the competition in Cebu, stayed calm to pull off a 6-3 win over the Olympus Archery club bet for the gold medal at the STI Gold Toe Archery Center in Marikina.
National archer Jonathan Ebbinghans Reaport also took a beating from Girvin Garcia, who fashioned a 6-0 shutout in topping the men’s under-21 division of the grassroots tournament organized by the World Archery Philippines led by Atty. Clint Aranas.
“I was really nervous because I knew that she beat Gabrielle Monica Bidaure in the last tournament. Nag-focus lang po ako,” Santos said of how her foe beat the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games gold medalist three weeks ago at the same range.
“I am very happy to beat Lagrada and somehow get back at her after I had the upperhand 4-0 in the semis but still lost 4-6 in the same age group last year,” said the University of Baguio freshman, who bagged three gold and two silver medals in the 2019 Batang Pinoy National Games in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.
“I don’t know, I was just off today. I just could not string together enough bullseyes,” noted Lagrada.
WAP secretary general Dondon Sombrio was pleased by the turnout of close to 200 entries that registered for the age-group tournament who came from as far as the city of Davao from the south and Baguio from the north.
“This is only goes to show that interest in archery is picking up once again. Many want to pick the sport up. We were just expecting about over 100 entries to register so were surprised that close to 200 entries showed up to shoot,” Sombrio said.
“We even had a lot of entries in the compound event, which is really unusual,” he said, adding the next leg of the competition will be held in the city of Bacolod, Negros Occidental from March 31 to April 2.
