Two-time world champion, multiple Southeast Asian Games medallist, and one of (if not) the greatest Filipina athlete Rubilen Amit was chosen as captain of a stellar Team East that will be competing on Thursday, April 16, for the 2015 edition of the Queen’s Cup at the Newport Mall, Pasay City.
The 33-year old veteran international campaigner had mixed reactions of excitement and anxiety upon learning of this assignment. “I’m excited. I’m happy to be chosen as one of their players, but at the same time I feel pressured, kasi I was chosen as the captain of the team.” Bingkay, as she is fondly called, also shared that she is very honored to be taking the skipper role, but added that “it’s a big responsibility. You are representing Asia; you are representing your country.”
Amit cited that language barrier was one of the primary reasons of her concerns going into the tournament. She will be joined by world number 1 China’s Siming Chen, Chinese Taipei’s Jennifer Chen, and Korea’s Eunji Park. She shared that they would hopefully address this problem in their team meeting Wednesday afternoon. Amit also added that this might be the advantage of the West team having all members that can converse in English. “Yes, it will be easier. There will be a 30-second shot clock. So yun ‘yung tingin kong pwede nilang maging advantage.”
Bingkay wished that there were more players that could be part of the team, however, each team can only be composed of four players. “Namimiss ko yung teammates ko before. Nagkita nga kami last week sa Taiwan. Tapos ‘yung si Ga Young Kim, ‘yung team captain namin, sabi ko ‘I miss you team captain.’” Regardless, she is very much happy with her current teammates, and she is positive that they will do well. Amit is looking forward to playing and learning with them. The Team East captain, however, thinks that one of their advantages is having Siming Chen in the team; otherwise, she knows that whatever advantages either team have will be cancelled out, and feels that the competition is an “even playing field.”
Catch some of the world’s top women’s pool players in intense action starting Thursday, April 16 up to Saturday, April 18, at the aforementioned venue.
