Top tchouckball teams in South Asia will fly to the Philippines to challenge the country’s best when the 2017 Philippine Open Tchoukball Invitational unfolds at the City Sports Club in Ayala Business Park, Cebu City on April 5-7, 2017.
Leading the foreign teams are Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia while Philippine sides include Big City’s Manila Crickets and Philippine Christian School of Tomorrow (PCST) Royals, Butuan’s Good Shepherd, Ilahas – Bacolod and host-Cebu’s Cav Butanding – Cebu and Bunal Cebu.
Taiwan is ranked No.1 in the world for the men’s division followed by Singapore (No.2) and Malaysia (No.8) while Philippines at No.25.
For the women’s side, Taiwan still on top of the world ranking while Singapore is ranked 3rd and Malaysia at No. 16 as the Philippines on the 21st.
More than any other team in this tournament, the Philippine contingents are hungrier of victory as they get the chance to represent the country in the World University Tchoukball Championship in Malaysia on July; World Beach Tchoukball Championship in Taiwan and World Youth Beach Tchoukball Championship in Bali, Indonesia – both on August, and the Southeast Asian Championship in Thailand on October.
Tchoukball is the fastest hand ball sport in the world today – which was invented in the late 1960s by Swiss biologist Dr. Hermann Brandt.
This team sport features 7 players that unites all key sporting skills – athleticism, concentration, respect for oneself and the opposition and teamwork. Tchoukball also demonstrates fair play and respect for the opposing team as all physical contact between players and interceptions are banned, enabling all players of differing shapes and sizes to play together.
The Fédération Internationale de Tchoukball (FITB) has an active 52 country-members with 14 in Asia – 10 full members and 4 associate members. Those full members include: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea.
Associate members are Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Expected to grace the event is PSC Commissioner Ramon Fernandez and Southeast Asia Tchoukball Federation head Raymund Jamelo, who is also the Philippine Tchoukball Federation president.
