2 Cebuano paddlers fine-tune for World University Games on July 3-14 in South Korea

Cebuano paddlers Daniel Jay Tormis (left) and Val Stephen Jaca (right)
(Photos from Tormis and Jaca’s official Facebook accounts)

CEBU – Two Cebuano paddlers from the University of Cebu (UC) are making a few adjustments as they prepare for the World University Games on July 3-14, 2015 in Gwangju City, South Korea.

Val Stephen Jaca and Daniel Jay Tormis will represent the Philippine men’s table tennis team which has trained starting last week using new table tennis equipment.

“In the international tournament like during the Southeast Asian Games (SEAGames), they are using a new paddle and a bigger ball,” said UC table tennis head coach Jiji Honoridez.

Honoridez said that in the previous tournaments, they used a celluloid ball, which has a measurement of 40 millimeters.

This time, they are expecting that they will be using a Polyball, which is more than 40mm made of plastic.

“Skills-wise, they are already prepared because they have been training all year round. We just have to adjust to the new equipment that will be used in the international competition,” said Honoridez.

The World University Games will also be expecting the presence of junior Olympians.

Honoridez said they are not threatened and would treat the games as an advantage if they get a chance to play against seasoned players so they could gauge the competitiveness of her players.

“I want them to have an experience with this level of competition. I always tell them to do their best and we are also honored we were given the chance to represent the country again in this prestigious tournament,” said Honoridez.