Wushu group gives up on hosting Asian junior event
THE Wushu Federation of the Philippines (WFP) will no longer host the Asian Junior Wushu Championship supposedly scheduled for May because of funding problems.
Julian Camacho, president of WFP, told The Manila Times Thursday that they already decided to cancel the hosting of the said event after the association failed to raise the required budget amounting P5 million to P8 million.
“We will need P5 million to P8 million to host the tournament because there will be more than 30 countries and 500 wushu artists [who are] going to compete there,” said Camacho, also the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) treasurer. “We just need to postpone it.”
The association failed to get the support of different companies for sponsorship after the two groups in WFP-the Camacho group and Edwin Pimentel group-got involved in a leadership dispute last year.
Both parties finally settled their differences after they agreed to clear up their by-laws first before holding an election. The POC recognized Camacho as wushu president after declaring a “status quo.”
Even the group of Edwin Pimentel, wushu’s former secretary-general, failed to get sponsors for the event.
“I met Edwin and asked him if they have raised the money. But they told me they have yet to get the fund-raising going and since we have no time, we decided to cancel the event,” said Camacho.
He also said they already informed the Asian Wushu Federation that they would no longer host the event and they are hoping WFP will not be sanctioned.
Wushu, Camacho said, will now focus on the training of athletes for the coming 2009 Laos Southeast Asian Games in December.
Wushu has a great potential for the country to get medals in international competitions as evidenced by the gold medal won by Willy Wang in the Beijing Olympics. Benjie Rivera and Mary Jane Estimar also took home bronze medals in Beijing.
However, since Wushu was categorized as a demonstration sports in Beijing, the medals won by participating athletes did not count in the official medal tally.
