MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is set to host the maiden U-19 Asian Sepak Takraw Championships set from November 18 to 25 at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila.
The competition with men’s and women’s divisions will have 10-12 teams including the host country Philippines.
Philippine Sepak Takraw Association Inc. (PSTAI) president Karen Claire Tanchanco-Caballero said this in a press conference with Asian Sepak Takraw Federation (ASTAF) Technical Delegate Muhammad Fariq Abdul Halim, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Patrick Gregorio, and PSC commissioner Walter Torres at the PSC Media Hall Wednesday.
Tanchanco-Caballero said that the federation is already scouting all over the country to find talents to form the national team, looking at inter-town competitions and the Palarong Pambansa in Agusan Del Sur this May.
“We’re already coordinating with regional clubs and directors across the country to ensure that talents are all considered,” said Tanchanco-Caballero.
“There will be a lot of inter-town and inter-barangay that would be part of the selection process but we’re already collecting the CV of these kids. We know of some of them already from Palarong Pambansa and Batang Pinoy but we want to dig deeper and see more talents.” Tanchanco-Caballero said the Asian sepaktakraw countries are happy to finally have a youth-focused regional tournament for the sport.
“We had a meeting in Bangkok last December wirh with Asian sepaktakraw leaders and they’re very happy with different leaders from different sepaktakraw nations and they’re very excited that finally there’s a big event specific to the youth of sepaktakraw,” she said.
“So it wasn’t hard for us to encourage the Asian countries to send their best youth athletes to compete in our event so this is big and special because as you know we take so much pride in hosting.”
