Olympic medalists spotlight PH’s opening salvo in Asian Video games

Members of Philippines’ delegation participate within the athletes parade in the course of the opening ceremony of the 2022 Asian Video games on the Hangzhou Olympic Sports activities Centre Stadium in Hangzhou in China’s jap Zhejiang province on September 23, 2023. (Picture by Ishara S.KODIKARA / AFP)

Over the previous a number of months, Filipino athletes ramped up their coaching, repeating each skill-sharpening activity to the purpose of monotony.

They may should be supercharged over the subsequent few weeks as full-scale competitions get occurring Sunday within the nineteenth Asian Video games right here in Hangzhou, China.

There will likely be just a few questions answered: How will Kayla Noelle Sanchez, an Olympic medalist who was a part of a vaunted Crew Canada, fare as a spearhead of a program craving to finish almost 4 gold-deprived many years?

“My preparation I’d say is sweet. I’m clearly making an attempt my greatest to position the very best for Crew Philippines,’’ mentioned Sanchez, who helped Canada pocket a silver within the 4×100 meter (m) free and a bronze within the 4x100m medley in the course of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics earlier than deciding to swim for the Philippines.

She’s going to lead a 4×100-meter squad on Sunday at Hangzhou Olympic Sports activities Centre Aquatics Enviornment.

Olympic silver medalists Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam start their respective spherical of 32 bids within the 57 kilogram (kg) weight class in boxing, which serves because the continental qualifier to subsequent yr’s Paris Olympics.

“The problem right here will likely be a lot better since I used to be pressured to go as much as a heavier weight class,’’ mentioned Paalam in Filipino after the flyweight division the place the 25-year-old obtained a silver in Tokyo was scratched from the Paris program.

“I haven’t confronted my attainable opponents on this weight class, however I’ll be prepared,’’ added Paalam.

Tokyo Olympian Irish Magno (54kg), Aira Villegas (50kg) and Mark Ashley Fajardo (63.5kg) may also try and ebook tickets to Paris.

Male boxers who advance to the finals will get free Olympic berths whereas girls boxers who advance to the semifinals may also be awarded spots within the Summer time Video games.

Medal bids get going

Agatha Wong will likewise take centerstage within the girls’s taijiquan and taijijian all-around in wushu whereas taekwondo poomsae performers Jocel Lyn Ninobla (girls’s particular person) and Patrick King Perez (males’s particular person), additionally get their medal bids going.

Judoka Shugen Nakano (males’s -66kg), fencers Sammuel Tranquilan (males’s particular person foil) and Ivy Claire Dinoy (girls’s particular person épée) will cross swords with their respective foes in a bid to advance deep into the competitors whilst taking pictures’s Amparo Acuna tries her luck within the girls’s 10m air rifle.

Becoming a member of forces

Sanchez earned her Tokyo medals by swimming for Canada within the heats and getting her former workforce into the finals. She reprised her function for the North American powerhouse on the earth championships earlier than swapping her Canadian passport for a Philippine one to characterize her dad and mom’ dwelling nation.

The 22-year-old Sanchez is ready to hitch palms with two-time Olympian Jasmine Alkhaldi, Southeast Asian Video games gold medalist Tiea Isabella Salvino and Miranda Renner, who just lately injured her shoulder, within the relay.

Minus two-time world champion Carlos Edriel Yulo, the boys’s gymnastics squad will depend on Juancho Miguel Besana, Justine Ace De Leon, Jhon Romeo Santillan and Jan Gwynn Timbang within the males’s workforce qualification.

Yulo, a robust contender within the vault, parallel bars, ground train and all-around, has opted to journey to Antwerp, Belgium, as a substitute for the World Creative Gymnastics Championships beginning Sept. 30, searching for an outright qualification to the Olympics.

Skateboarder Jericho Francisco will jumpstart his bid within the males’s park whereas Jorrel Aristorenas faces Rashed Khaled Alrowaihi of Bahrain within the opening spherical of EA Sports activities FC On-line occasion.

Chessers Mark Paragua, Paulo Bersamina, Janelle Mae Frayna and Marie Antoinette San Diego are scheduled to start their marketing campaign in particular person play, too.

World No. 2 and Asian champion EJ Obiena seems to be one other prime gold-medal hope after a silver efficiency on the latest World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary whereas skateboarder Margielyn Didal is in search of to retain the ladies’s avenue title she gained again in 2018 in Indonesia.

The 2 athletes served as flag-bearers in the course of the glamorous opening ceremony on Saturday at Hangzhou Olympic Stadium, which featured a lavish and high-tech present.