BARRING unforeseen circumstances, professional golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina are poised to become the country’s latest athletes to qualify for the Paris Summer Games next month based on the International Golf Federation Olympic women’s ratings released last Monday.
Pagdanganan and Ardina remained at No. 35 and 55, respectively, days before the June 24 cut-off date set by the Lausanne world golf body for the 60-player roster for the women’s division of the event.
It will be the second trip for Pagdanganan, who finished in a three-way tie for 43rd in her Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, while it will be the maiden appearance for Ardina, who skipped the 2016 Rio Olympiad due to the Zika virus that struck Brazil at that time.
Once their qualification is formalized, the two golfers will raise the country’s Olympic campaigners to 17 in what will be the Philippine centennial jubilee campaign in the Games since fielding a contingent in the birthplace of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic movement, in 1924.
They are set to join the ranks of pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, gymnasts Carlos Edriel Yulo, Aleah Finnegan, Emma Malabuyo and Levi Jung Ruivivar, boxers Eumir Felix Marcial, Carlos Paalam, Nesty Petecio, Aira Villegas and Hergie Bacyadan, rower Joanie del Gaco, fencer Samantha Catantan and weightlifters Elreen Ann Ando, Vanessa Sarno and Jose Fabuar Ceniza.
There were 19 Pinoy standard-bearers in 10 sports who saw action in the Tokyo Olympics where Hidylin Diaz-Naranjo achieved a golden breakthrough for the country, hoisting the women’s 55kg championship.
The Olympic-bound contingent will be feted in send-off rites to be graced by President Marcos Jr. this afternoon at the Ayuntamiento de Manila in Intramuros before heading for a one-month training camp in Metz, France tomorrow, with the other overseas-bets set to join them.
