HOPING to improve on their third-place finish last UAAP season, the UST Male Shuttlecockers showed their fine form during the JVC National Championships last June 6-9 at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati.
After breezing through the eliminations, the tandem of RP Junior Team mainstays Ricky Bartolome and Reynaldo Selga ran out of gas in their championship match against the country’s no. 1 ranked duo of Arolas Amahit and Ian Piencienaves, 9-15, 10-15, to bag second place in the men’s doubles competition.
In the ladies’ doubles, the combination of Sandy Banquiles and former UAAP rookie of the year Deress Ann Sy stumbled in the quartefinals and failed to reach the semis.
Meanwhile, in the mixed doubles category, the combination of Bartolome and Kathleen Añasco and that of Selga and Lyka Leonor also yielded the same result.
Despite the defeats, UST Badminton and former international umpire coach Ivoli Cajefe was impressed with UST’s performance, specially with the second-place finish in the men’s doubles.
He said the competition in the National Championships, sponsored by electronic giant JVC, was a big boost in their preparation for the coming UAAP wars.
He added that before Selga and Bartolome participated in this tournament, they had already played in the badminton circuits of Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan to further hone their skills.
Bartolome and Selga’s second-place finish earned them a slot in a still undisclosed international competition sometime in November.
The former international-umpire-turned-coach is eyeing a stint for his wards in the National Open and the Grassroots Invitational Program Development before playing in the UAAP wars.
The JVC-sponsored tournament gathered the finest shuttlecockers in the country. The elimination and the qualifying rounds were played at the Rizal Badminton Hall while the quarterfinals up to the finals were all played in Glorietta. Alder T. Almo
