Robert Racasa settles for 9th place out of 190 at World Memory Championships in India

THE Philippines’ Robert Racasa finished a strong ninth out of 190 participants in the three-day World Memory Championships that concluded over the weekend in Mumbai, India.

Mr. Racasa delivered strong efforts in several disciplines like eighth in the five-minute numbers, sixth in the binary numbers as well as in the speed cards and hour cards and fifth in hour numbers.

“I’m honored to have represented the Philippines on the world stage,” said Mr. Racasa, a memory grandmaster. “This result shows that with discipline, strategy, and dedication, Filipino athletes can compete among the world’s best in mind sports.”

The sport, which drew participation from the United States, France, Austria, Australia, Italy, Germany, Norway, India, Nepal and Uzbekistan, is a sport that largely relies on memorizing volumes of data — from long strings of numbers and binary codes to shuffled decks of cards and lists of random words — all within certain time limits.

Mr. Racasa, whose trip was backed by the Philippine Sports Commission, Hotel Sogo, Cutting Edge, Bicycle Playing Cards, Sportsman Marlon Manalo and PCC, said he’ll be participating next in the Asian Open International Memory Championships slated Nov. 15 to 16 in Hyderabad, India. — Joey Villar