We Heart Games

VETERAN NATHANIEL “TAC” PADILLA broke the national rapid fire pistol record last weekend to lead eight other shooters who have qualified to participate in the 25th Laos Southeast Asian Games this December.

The 45-year-old Padilla, general manager of their family-owned Spring Cooking Oil, fired 577 points to rip his old mark of 572—actually the same score posted by the 2007 Bangkok SEA Games medalist Adzha Hafiz of Malaysia.

Padilla, who won his first international gold medal in the Benito Juarez junior championships in Mexico City when he was only 12, will complete in his 16th Games in Laos, also a record.

The other shooters who achieved the criteria required to earn slots for the Laos Games are Carolino Gonzales (Pagcor), Emerito Concepcion (Meralco), S/Sgt Eddie Thomas (Army), Ronald Hejastro. M/Sgt Robert Donalvo (Marines), Shanin Gonzales (Tagaytay), Ruth Ricardo (Ateneo) and Mica Padilla (Assumption).

Gonzales, Ricardo and Mica, all products of PNSA’s National Youth Development Program, surpassed silver-medal scores of the last SEA Games in the 10-meter air pistol team event, while Padilla, Hejastro and Donalvo have consistently bettered the gold medal tally of the last Games in the 25-meter standard pistol team event.

“I feel I’m in good shape as we move closer to the SEA Games,” said Padilla.