THIS will go down as Team Philippines’ best finish ever since its maiden stint in the Olympics exactly 100 years ago.
While golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina, along with weightlifter Elreen Ando, were still in the thick of the fight in the Paris Olympics at press time last night, Nesthy Petecio fell 1-4 in controversial fashion yesterday to Polish newcomer Julia Szeremeta in the women’s featherweight semifinals.
But the defeat added a bronze to the Pinoy bets’ big harvest in the Greatest Show on Earth.
With two gold medals courtesy of Carlos Yulo in gymnastics and another bronze from pug Aira Villegas, the country stands to wind up with a 2-0-2 haul in the French capital.
Pinoys are hoping and praying that Ando and fellow weightlifter Vanessa Sarno, and Pagdanganan and Ardina can add to the medal count.
The success of the 22-man Philippine contingent would have been farfetched without the watchful eyes and hard work of Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.
“Cong. Bambol, thank you,” Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines chairman Ricky Vargas said.
“Ang galing nito, super hands-on,” added Vargas of Tolentino, the No. 1 cheerleader in each and every fight of a Filipino athlete since the Tokyo Games three years ago.
Vargas, also a former president of the POC, gave plaudits to the current chief of the Philippines’ Olympic body.
Why not?
It was during Tolentino’s term in 2021 when weightlifting star Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo ended a 97-year golden dry spell in the Tokyo Games.
“Counting the silver in Rio (of Diaz), the four medals in Tokyo and the four now here, it’s nine medals after going without a medal in the Olympics for 20 years,” Vargas said. “Four medals (in Paris) from a 22-strong team with meager funding, that’s excellence.”
John Ceniza crashed out of the men’s 61kg division of the weightlifting tournament at the Paris Expo Portes des Versailles early yesterday.
Playing through a nagging right shoulder injury, Ceniza could not muster enough strength to lift 125 kilograms in the snatch on all three tries and failed.
“Mahirap iyong injury ko. Tatak kasi sa utak na may injury ka. Mahirap mag-compete na hindi ka pa naka-recover,” Ceniza said. “Iyong nerve pa rin. Dalawang balikat, may injury po ako.
