Badminton governing body backs Alcala’s Olympic bid

MALVINNE Alcala may very well be on her way to the 2012 London Olympics after the country’s governing body in badminton, the Philippine Badminton Association, vowed to give its all-out support in a bid to qualify her and at the same time promote the sport to the Filipinos.

“I believe she’s our ticket to the Olympic Games,” said Vice President and PBA president Jejomar Binay of the 16-year-old Alcala, the reigning Singapore and Australian Juniors champion. “She’s our most promising athlete in badminton, let us give her the assistance she needs to be able to reach that goal,” added Binay.

Alcala, who also copped the women’s singles crown in the recent second leg of the PbaRS (Philippine Badminton Ranking System) circuit in Bacolod, is set to compete together with Joper Escueta in the Badminton Asia U-19 Juniors Championships on July 2-9 in India.

Meanwhile, Binay, PBA chairman Manny V. Pangilinan and sec-gen Rep. Albee Benitez will go around the country to visit PBA member-clubs and provide support to their projects, including staging of tournaments.

“Visiting them personally will give us insights on their plans and concerns. These in turn, will help us determine the appropriate assistance that we could extend to them,” said Binay.

To provide the PBA a wider pool of talents, Binay said they will also increase the number of national team pool from 20 players to 30. They will be grouped into Team A as the national team, Team B as the national developmental pool and the junior team. Team B will serve as the back-up pool of talents to replace national team members who will retire. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio