NAKHON RATCHASIMA – The Philippine water polo team will scout the fancied Singapore side tomorrow before taking them Saturday in what’s considered the finale in this sport discipline.
The RP tankers drew the Malaysians as their first assignment while the Singaporeans got the Thais in the draw held yesterday.
“It’s a good draw because we avoided an early confrontation with Singapore. We have the time to study their moves first,” said RP swimming president Mark Joseph.
Indonesia and Vietnam are the two other teams in water polo where the Philippines has become a perennial runner-up to Singapore.
But the Filipinos are hopeful they could finally pull one over the Singaporeans here.
“We’re good at it. It’s just that the Singaporeans are more experienced,” said Joseph, adding that the RP team only had one international exposure as against almost a dozen by the Singaporeans.
The water polo is said to be among the fully supported by the Singaporean government with the sport among the closest to the hearts of the Singaporeans.
Tournament format calls for a single round-robin among six teams with the best record automatically winning the championship.
Frazier Alamara, Norton Alamara, Roy Canete, Sherwin dela Paz, Danny dela Torre, Dale Evangelista, Tani Gomez, Michael Jorolan, Almax Laurel, Ernesto Pabalan, Allan Payawal, Mansueto Pelenio and Johnny Uba compose the RP team seeking to end Singapore’s stranglehold of SEAG water polo. – Nelson Beltran