Tac, daughter sizzle in tryout

MANILA, Philippines - The father-and-daughter team of reigning national champion Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla and youthful national shooter Mica Padilla sparkled in two separate events of the ongoing Philippine National Shooting Association (PNSA) tryouts recently at the PSC range in Philippine Marines, Fort Bonifacio.

Tac, the only Filipino athlete who has represented the Philippines 17 times in the Southeast Asian Games, collected 568 points to beat Air Force Col. Connor Anthony Canlas by 17 points in the center fire pistol event.

Mica, a 20-year-old incoming third year legal management student at Ateneo de Manila University, fired 533 points to whip Shanin Gonzales (521) and Gloria Cabuslay (471) in the sport pistol competition.

Mica carried the national colors in the 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Laos and the 2010 World Cup in Beijing. She’s confident of hurdling the ongoing tryouts for the Southeast Asian Championships in June together with her dad.

“Colonel Canlas gave me a tough fight,” said Tac Padilla, general manager of their family-owned Spring Cooking Oil. “I had to give my best in the rapid fire stage of the event to hold him off.”

Canlas got off to a big start by pacing Padilla by one point in the first 20 shots of the slow fire stage, but Tac managed to recover two points in the last 10 shots to inch ahead by one.

In the rapid fire stage, Tac shot 289 against Canlas’ 273 to pull away, as the airman wound up with a final 551 tally.

Two other airmen – 2/Lt Bert Espiritu and Col. Jovito Teneza – tallied 544 and 540, respectively, to finish third and fourth. Patrick Chuasoto came in fifth with 513, followed by Col. Abner Maranon (482) and Nonie Alvarez (472).