Mark Javier Profile

AGE: 26 years old
SPORT: Men’s individual competition, archery
OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE: 1st-time Olympian
MEDALS: Gold medalist, Southeast Asian Games 2005 National record holder, highest score in men’s individual event

HE originally wanted to be a target shooter. That means Mark Javier’s aspiration hasn’t changed. Only his weapons have.

“It was something that I always dreamed of,” Javier said, talking about his sports-shooting inclination back in the day. “I was even a part of an air-gun club [in Dumaguete City] and I even won some tournaments there.

“But this was before I really thought shooting would be my life-long career.”

Now instead of a gun, Javier totes a bow and arrow. And his recent success internationally is indicating his change of heart was a step in the right direction.

The National Archery Association of the Philippines discovered Javier in the National open in 2001 and elevated him to the training pool in 2004.

Since being given a slot on the RP team, Javier has been to the Southeast Asian Games in 2005 and 2007. In 2005, he was part of the team that won the gold in the recurve event. Two years later, he and his teammates settled for the bronze.

In 2006, he was in the Doha Asian Games where he reached the final 16 in the individual competition and the quarterfinals in the team event.

In the Olympic qualifiers of the Asian Archery Championships held in September 2007 in China, Javier blazed through the competition, topped the event and got the ticket to the Beijing Olympiad.

He ranked sixth after the ranking phase and registered a 652, a Philippine record in men’s competition.

In the knockout stages, he won over foes from Singapore and Indonesia and then beat the third-ranked player from Japan, the no.2 player from Malaysia and the top-ranked archer from India in the last three rounds in that order to top the qualifiers.

“When I got [to the national team], I decided to take the sport more seriously. After all, like shooting, archery also requires focus and concentration,” Javier, 26, said.

In the last 12 months in the run-up to the Olympics, Javier has been active. He was in the 2007 World Championships in July in Germany, where he competed in the individual and team events and placed the highest among the Filipino archers in the individual category.

After the Olympic qualifiers in September and the SEA Games in December, Javier flew to Egypt to train in the summer.

Last May he participated in the Turkey World Cup where he made it past the ranking stages and as the 55th seed, stunned an archer from Mexico who was ranked no.10. He bowed out in the next round. In the France World Cup, his last tune-up event before the Beijing Games, Javier failed to make it to the top 64 and was ousted early.

Javier has had a history of pulling off surprises and that’s not new to Filipino archers.
Countryman Jasmin Figueroa, the country’s representative in the Athens Olympics four years ago, stunned a top-ranked foe in the knockout stages and after the Games, emerged with the best finish by a Filipino archer in Olympic history.

Javier, the former air-gunslinger, looks to shoot for the same goal, if not surpass it.
“It has been very overwhelming. But making it to the Olympics is only half the job. I still have a mission to accomplish. In this sport, I have no opponent but myself. So I always have to put my best efforts out there in order to outdo myself.”