Clark Freeport—As part of the preparations for the coming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games 2019, a total of 157 elite archers from across the globe recently converged here to participate in the 2019 Asia Cup Stage III World Ranking Event.
Organized by the World Archery Philippines Inc. (WAP Inc.), the tournament held at the Clark Parade Grounds is composed of Recurve and Compound divisions for both male and female categories.
The eight-day competition from September 8 to 15 is also a ‘test-event’ to prepare the venue for the SEA Games 2019. It is also an opportunity to hone up Filipino archers for the biennial sports meet as well as for the Tokyo Olympics next year
Competing at the said event are members of the World Archery Association (WAA) that represent 12 countries including the Philippines, Australia, Bangladesh, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, and Taipei.
With 530 events, 56 sports and 44 venues for the SEA Games 2019 that are grouped into Metro Manila, Clark and Subic Clusters, the Clark Parade Grounds is also being improved as it becomes the official venue for the Archery and Rugby 7s competition.
Other identified venues for the Clark Cluster are Clark Global City, The Villages, Royce Hotel, Aquatics Center and the Athletics Stadium, and Aquatics Center at the New Clark City.
The 2019 SEA Games and commonly known as Philippines 2019 will be the 30th edition of the Southeast Asian Games, a biennial regional multi-sport event.
For this edition of the Games, four designated hubs will serve as hosts namely Manila, Clark, Subic, and a fourth cluster consisting of venues not grouped with the first three hubs.
This will be the fourth time that the Philippines will host the games and its first time since 2005. Previously, it had also hosted the 1981 and 1991 editions of the games.
This edition is most notable for being the first edition to include e-sports and obstacle course as well as having the highest number of sports in the history of the games, at 56.