Father-daughter team to lead RP's bid in Laos shooting event

The father and daughter tandem of Nathaniel “Tac" Padilla and Mica Padilla are competing together in the shooting event of the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos assuring a line of succession in a family whose name evokes a rich history of success in the sport. In a record 16th SEA Games stint, Padilla is competing in the rapid fire pistol event, while his daughter, who just turned 18, marks her first try in the biennial meet by seeing action in the pistol competitions.

To be held at the shooting range of the National Sports Complex, action in the sport begins on Thursday. The circumstances behind their inclusion together in the RP shooting team can’t help the 45-year old Padilla to reminisce the good old days when he and his father, two-time Olympian Tom Ong, competed in the SEA Games. "From 1977 to 1997 yun, tuluy-tuloy," recalled Padilla, who shot into prominence when he won his first international gold medal as a 12-year old during the Benito Juarez junior competition in Mexico. During that span, Tac bagged his first SEA Games gold in the rapid-fire event during the 1979 staging of the meet. He last ruled the same event in Singapore in 1993. Other than saying he’s ready and out to give his best, Tac doesn’t want to predict anything about his chances to regain back the gold that has eluded him for the past 16 years, capped by that heartbreaking experience in Nakhonratchasima, Thailand two years ago when his Pardini 22-cal. pistol malfunctioned at the crucial stage of the tournament leading to his downfall. "Basta, may bagong baril tayo ngayon," he said, when reminded of that sorry incident in 2007. But when talk shifted about his daughter, Padilla understandably was the doting father who speaks highly about Mica, a senior high school at Assumption College. "Mas matapang pa nga yan kaysa sa tatay, e," said the soft-spoken father with a hearty laugh. Asked if the two of them would be able to duplicate the long, 20-year tandem he had with his father, Tac’s curt reply: "Hanggang kaya pa nating pumutok." – GMANews.TV