Last-gasp PH bid fails to land a medal

Yuka Saso PHI competes in the Golf Women’s Individual Stroke Play Round 3 at the Hurlingham Club. The Youth Olympic Games, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday 11th October 2018. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand for OIS/IOC. Handout image supplied by OIS/IOC

It was a case of fading in the stretch for the country’s young athletes in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games Monday in Buenos Aires.

Golfers Yuka Saso and Carl Jano Corpus, unable to build on a strong start, stumbled for a combined 148 that left them out of the podium.

Nicole Marie Tagle, meanwhile, failed to ride a strong showing in the first two sets and crashed out in the round of 16 of archery’s women’s recurve individual.

But it was more than enough to make the Philippine delegation, led by chef de mission Jonne Go, to consider the country’s stint there a success.

“For me, this is a huge success for Team Philippines,’’ said Go, who will go home with Christian Tio’s wakeboarding silver as the country’s best showing in the event that gathers the finest junior athletes aged 18 years old and below from all over the world.

Apart from Tio, the Philippine delegation also pushed hard in other fronts.
Nicole Oliva reached the finals of two of four events in swimming, while Saso came close to finishing on the podium in the women’s individual event only to lose steam in the playoff hole.

Alyssia Tromans-Ansell of Great Britain ousted Tagle, 6-4, after coming back from two points down in the third set to march to the quarterfinals at Parque Sarmiento archery range.

At Hurlingham Club, Saso and Corpus watched their 4-under first round become a distant memory when their 5-over in the second round pushed them back irrevocably behind eventual winners Atthaya Thitikul and Vanchai Luangnitikul of Thailand and runners-up Lucy Li and Akshay Bhatia of the United States.