Kauai’s Eliana earns medals at racquetball championships

LIHUE — The 2013 USA Racquetball National Singles Championships was held in Fullerton, Calif. from May 14-20.

For the third year in a row, Kauai’s Hawaii Air National Guard member Sgt. Philip Eliana Jr., assigned to the 293rd CBCS at PMRF, attended the event as a member of the 2013 All U.S. Air Force Racquetball Team.

“Our team did very well this year, and in the 15 divisions entered, we took home 21 medals,” Eliana said. “It’s a hard to explain, but I’ve been to many tournaments and there’s really nothing that can compare to being selected to a team where you don’t really know your team members and that you’ll be representing something much, much bigger than yourself.”

The team is selected from service members serving around the world from each of the three branches of the U.S. Air Force: Active Duty, Reserve Component and the Air National Guard with 14 team members selected. The U.S. Air Force is the only military service branch to still provide a military team to attend specific national level championship sports events.

This national championship event was also a salute to the Memorial Day holiday with a honor guard ceremony event that was held right before the finals.  

Although Eliana did not win gold at this event, he did well and earned three medals in each of the three divisions he entered: Military age 30+ (fourth place), military skill B’s (second place) and centurion doubles B’s (third place).

“It’s an awesome feeling and honor to be a member of the All U.S. Air Force Team for the past 3 years now and to also represent the island of Kauai,” Eliana said.

With the closing of the old Kauai Athletic Club location, Eliana had to find other ways to keep in shape and prepare for competition.

 “I’m blessed that my body held together for most of my matches,” Eliana said. “I had to totally change my training and I would like to really thank Steven Pereira from PMRF for helping to delay the court work renovation, which is the only court on the island now, until summer so I could get some court time in. Also to Derek Borrero for his speed, quickness and agility training and the county for providing me some Kauai products to give to my team members. It was a great event and experience.”