MANILA, Philippines – The country will be fielding two representatives to the World Memory Championship (WMC) in Guangzhou, China in August.

Filipinos Roberto Racasa and Johann Randall Abrina will be going up against the world’s brightest mental athletes from August 21 to 27 at the Baiyun International Convention Center.

The annual competition was instituted to challenge the limits of human memory consisting of 10 events like binary digits (5 minutes/30 minute), numbers (5/30 min), spoken numbers, speed cards, cards (10/30min/1 hour), random words, historic/future dates, names and faces, abstract imagesm, and memorization of new poems.

“Our Primary goal for the 2010 WMC is to get the GM (grandmaster) title. To break into the Top 10 or even winning the whole thing may seem unrealistic, especially for first time participants like us. But we like to set lofty goals for ourselves,” said Abrina.

Racasa, for his part, added: “We would just like to do our best and show the whole world that the Filipino mind is at par with the world’s best. Manny Pacquiao is doing a great job of representing the Philippines in boxing; we’re aiming to do the same in memory sports."

Abrina, a Sports Science graduate of UP Diliman, and Racasa, a former top board player of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) Chess Team, are now deep into their 10-week preparation for the competition.

The two received backing from National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay, Jr., Filway Marketings Inc. CEO Hector O. Tagaysay, Marikina City Mayor-elect Del de Guzman, Vice Mayor-elect Fabian Cadiz, Marikina District 1 Representative-elect Marcy Teodoro and Marikina District 2 Representative-elect Miro Quimbo. – by Marlon Bernardino