4 Memory bets gain GMM

MANILA, Philippines - The Avesco-Philippine Team bagged the overall crown in the first Hong Kong Open Memory Championship with four of its members obtaining Grandmaster of Memory (GMM) norms in Kowloon, Hong Kong last weekend.

Kids champion Jamyla Lambunao, Axelyancy Tabernilla, Ydda Graceille Habab and Robert Bryan Yee were able to memorize the exact order of a shuffled playing cards in less than 120 seconds (two minutes). Lambunao did it in 93.13 seconds, Tabernilla in 95.97, Habab in 112.91 and Yee in 118.61 seconds.

“Aside from the two-minute playing card, the other two GMM norms are memorizing at least 10 decks of playing cards in one hour and 1,000 decimal numbers also in one hour,” said coach Roberto Racasa.

The Philippines has two GMMs – Mark Anthony Castaneda and Erwin Balines – who steered the team to the overall championship.

GMM Castaneda scored 5,239 points to edge GMM Balines by 27 points and bag the overall individual title.

Lambunao, a Grade 7 student at St. Scholastica’s Academy Marikina, also topped the Kids division with 3,460 points, beating Temuulen Ganzorig of Mongolia who scored 2,897 points. She also set a new national record in the five-minute Random Words event when she was able to recall 69 words. The previous mark of 60 words was held by Kevin Tenoso.

Racasa said Lambunao, Tabernilla, Habab and Yee will have a chance to get the two other GMM norms in the 2013 World Memory Championships slated Nov. 30 in London.

Last year, Lambunao placed second in the Kids division but Racasa said she is fancied to reign this year.

The Hong Kong Open Memory Championship was sanctioned by the World Memory Sports Council and followed the WMSC standard of competition that featured Names and Faces (5 minutes), Binary Numbers (5 minutes), Random Numbers (15 minutes), Abstract Images (15 minutes), Speed Numbers (5 minutes), Historic / Future Dates (5 minutes), Playing Cards (10 minutes), Random Words (5 minutes), Spoken Numbers (100 seconds & 300 seconds) and Speed Cards.

The Filipinos netted 15,198 points to beat Mongolia (14,369) and host Hong Kong (10,601) in the event which drew 111 memory athletes from 11 countries.