Team Philippines gets medal shutout in penultimate day of Asian Youth Games

MANAMA — The Philippines suffered one heartache after another and got shut out in the medal hunt in the various fronts on the penultimate day of the 3rd Asian Youth Games here.

Alas Pilipinas, the country’s wrestlers and the jiu-jitsu fighters all gave it all for a chance at taking home bronzes but eventually fell short and will go home with heartaches instead.

The Filipinas stared the Thais, the Southeast Asian powerhouse who beat the former in the group stages, eye to eye and even led by as much as three points in both the opening and third sets before faltering in the end, 26-24, 25-20, 26-24, in girls’ volleyball at the Isa Sports City.

It denied the country the bronze that would have felt like winning the gold since the Nationals, composed of National University standouts and talented Rhose Almendralejo from Tay Tung Bacolod, came here as complete underdogs.

“As you can see, we stuck with them (Thais) and we even got the lead at some point,” said Alas spiker Jai Adrao. “But we just couldn’t hold on to it in the end because of our lapses and errors.”

Medals were also tough to find in wrestling and jiu-jitsu at the Exhibition World Bahrain.

Charmel Gem Angana fell to Thai Nokrod Nattaporrn in battle for bronze in the girls’ 49-kilogram (kg) as well as Pauline Gilian Nietes, who was defeated by Uzbek Dilnura Avezova in the girl’s 65 kg of freestyle wrestling.

The same fates befell Jin Gabriel Ong, Sachi Khonghun and Zeus Babanto, who were denied the bronze in jiu-jitsu.

Mr. Ong lost to Kyrgyzstan’s Abdusamad Tynchtyk Tynchtybekov in the boys’ -56 kg; Khonghun dropped to Mongolia’s Munkhjin Batbold in the girls’ -53 kg; and Mr. Babanto was overwhelmed by Saudi Arabia’s Adam Fernani in the boys’ -85 kg.

There were, however, some remaining Filipinos fighting for those elusive medals in jiu-jitsu and swimming at the Khalifa Sports Center pool before the country’s campaign officially comes to a close on Friday.

As of this writing, the Philippines remained with six golds, seven silvers and eight bronzes.

But because of the medal drought in the past few days, the country has fallen from as high as No. 5 to No. 11 in the overall medal tally.

Regardless, the Filipinos, headed by Philippine Olympic Committee President Abraham Tolentino and Chef-de-Mission Ramon Suzara, will go standing proud after eclipsing their two-gold and three-silver finish in the last edition of this quadrennial event in Nanjing, China 12 years ago. — Joey Villar