Palawan State University (PSU) instructors are planning to introduce “pétanque” sports in the province, after serving as game officials in the Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) 2019.
Diana Lou H. Bautista on Sunday said that they are hoping to produce pétanque athletes from Palawan who may compete in the sports.
Pétanque is a lawn ball sport that is played by targeting a boule (metal ball) close to the small target ball called cochonnet. The sports event has yet to gain traction in the country since its inclusion in the SEAG early 1990s.
“Hindi pa ganoon kakilala ‘yong pétanque. Since our involvement as the official workforce in the SEAG, we plan to introduce it in Palawan,” Bautista, who served as a pétanque referee in the SEAG, said.
She also said that they intend to include it in the academic syllabus for Physical Education (PE) in PSU as part of the Physical Activities Towards Health and Fitness (PathFit 3) curriculum.
“After introducing and teaching it to the students next year, we will also start establishing the club for pétanque,” she added.
She also said that teaching an unfamiliar sport is a way of providing the students the opportunity to expand their knowledge about other sports in competitive platforms.
“By teaching Pétanque, which is not that famous in Palawan, and in our country, we hope that our youth will be involved in popularizing the sport through PathFit. It is a sport that does not need height like basketball and does not need the skills of a football or volleyball. It’s a combination of physical and mental sports. For this reason, we know that a lot of students will be involved in this sport because they will be given the opportunity to excel here,” Bautista said.
Bautista, Mark Alvin Arzaga, Clint Aian L. Pontillas, and John Derreck L. Presto were the four PSU PE instructors who served as pétanque officials at the latest SEAG following the request from national official Jeff Pagadua.
