LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – After the struggle and stress just to train for the recent Jamili’s Scholarship Cup online dancesport competition and a 1-2-3 gold-silver-bronze medal to show, the Benguet dancesport team are back to their usual grind in preparation for what could be their biggest competition for the year yet – the Korea Open.
The team that not just represents Benguet but the Cordillera for the June 26-27 open finally got back to training at their “home”, the Quads Fitness Gym today.
“We had at least four days of active rest to recover since it’s physically and mentally draining with our Jamili’s competition,” said coach Charibelle Pingawan in a mixed English and Filipino.
“We will resume training tomorrow,” Pingawan told the RNG Luzon Thursday night referring to their training at Quads starting today.
“And I will be maximizing the remaining days before the Korea Open,” she added as they only have eight days until competition time.
She said that her athletes need a lot of improvement as they will be competing in a very much bigger stage. “Open to improve the grounding skills of my athletes since that was the weak point that I observed and we need to improve on that,” she observed.
“As part of our preparation also, we reviewed the previous performances and assess what needs to be improved in short time, review our possible competitors so at least we can have an edge in the upcoming competition,” she added.
What is most important now is that Benguet is now under general community quarantine that they can train at Quads with no hassle.
Unlike in the Jamili’s when the latter part of May was when the town was under localized modified enhanced community quarantine which was extended until June 15 that they have to go to Baguio and train at Body Base.
That cost the cash strapped team much that they have to do it for once a week and Pingawan was only able to do group trainings instead of giving a one on one training.
They were able to get an exemption from the La Trinidad government on June 9 which they used to train at Quads.
“Buti na lang nabigyan kami ng permit (Lucky we were given a permit),” which at least helped them to that 1-2-3 performance.
May Luz It-itan and Jhosan Galvez combined for the top podium in the open duo female for the team’s lone gold.
It was actually the second gold for It-itan actually in online dancesport competitions after her gold medal with Jessica Marie Ogbinar in the Latin duo during the 8th Geraldine Online Dancesport competition last February.
Erick Cabloy made it to the finals in two of his three events but it was in junior rumba that he was most successful when he landed second among 13 competitors.
Nena Roschan Escalera and Eiji Justine Balao took the other silver in the Youth Duo Female.
Cabloy then paired with Ashley Abance to settle for third in Junior Duo Male, his second medal in the online competitions.
Betty Mae Agad and Jayson Ace Abenoja accounted for the other bronze medals Grade C Standard Female and Grade C Standard Male, respectively.
After a gold medal last May in the Manila Open, Mark Gonzalo Benter came out with 11th and 16th place finishes in the Grade B Latin and Grade C Latin, respectively.
