Memory athletes rake in 14 gold medals in Asia Open tilt

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Memory Team grabbed 26 medals, including 14 golds, to finish second overall out of seven participating countries in the 2024 Asia Open Memory Championships over the weekend at the Singapore Polytechnic University.

Coached by Anne Bernadette “AB” Bonita, all six young Filipino “mind-trained athletes” in the squad won medals in their respective disciplines against 51 opponents, with siblings Grandmaster of Memory Chloe Andrea and Charles Andrea, and Chelsea Anne Galamgam leading the campaign.

The Filipinos garnered 8,377.94 points behind overall champion Japan (14,269.320 and Indonesia (10,774.97). The other participating nations are Malaysia, Singapore, and favorites Myanmar and China.

The 16-year-old Chloe Andrea, a Grade 11 student at the Ateneo de Manila Senior High, dominated six disciplines — 30 minutes Binary Numbers, 30 minutes Numbers, 5 minutes Numbers, 30 minutes. Marathon Cards, Spoken numbers and 15 min, Random Words — to claim the overall championship in the junior division.

Chloe Andrea also finished second in the 15-minute. Names and Faces discipline as well as in the 5 minutes Speed cards and 5 minutes Dates, while claiming the bronze medal in the 5 minutes Random Images.

In the process, she elevated her GM status to Dan 2, completing the required criteria after successfully memorizing the 8 Decks of Shuffled Cards in 30 minutes, 79 seconds in memorizing one deck cards 9Speed Cards), 728 Random Numbers in 30 minutes and 160 random Words in 15 minutes.

Last year during the country’s hosting of the tournament, Chloe Andrea claimed the GM Dan 1 status.

“Our largest Gold Medal haul in the Philippine Memory Team’s history of participation in the International Memory Sport Championships! Securing these medals is no walk in the park, especially when you're up against a formidable lineup of international memory athletes and seasoned grandmasters of memory,” said Bonita, founder of The Brain Republic - Memory Enhancement and Mind Sports Training.

“We sent strong memory athletes this year. We also have rising stars who showed exceptional performance in the recent event and young kids who have bright futures ahead,” she added.

Chloe's younger siblings, Charles Andrei, 14, and Chelsea Anne, 12, also made their marks with the former claiming two gold medals in the junior class (5 minutes Speed Card, 5 minutes Dates), one silver (5 minuts Random Images) and bronze (Random Images), while the latter topped the Kid’s 5 min Speed Cards while finishing second in the 15 minutes Names and Faces, 5 minutes Numbers and 30 minutes Numbers and bronze in 5 minutes Dates. Both are students at the Victory Christian International School.

Venir Manzalay III and Jessica Raine Rellora, both Grade 6 at Dr. Yanga’s College Inc., and Angel Mikhaila Sanchez, Grade 11 at Sotero Cabahug Forum for Literacy also finishing strong with Manzalay dominated the 30 minutes Random Cards, 15 minutes Random Words and Spoken Numbers and got the bronze in the 5 minutes Names and Faces.

Rellora topped the 15 minutes names and Faces, while Sanchez received a citation as Best New Player.