SIKHAIR, Bahrain – Team Philippines hopes to put up a strong finishing kick and wind up within the Top 10 of the 3rd Asian Youth Games here.
After missing a close gold in weightlifting and another one in boxing, the Filipino contingent fell three notches in the medal tally by the end of competitions on Tuesday night with a total of six golds, seven silvers, and eight bronzes.
The Philippines once occupied the sixth spot following a three-gold deluge in the sport of muay last Sunday.
The country placed 18th in the inaugural staging of the meet in 2009 in Singapore, and then climbed to a 12th place finish in Nanjing, China four years later.
On Tuesday, world champion Jhodie Peralta nearly pulled off a gold in the girls’ 53 kg snatch, lifting 87 kg in her final lift, only to be surpassed by Hae Yon Park of North Korea with an 88 also in her last attempt.
Peralta, 16, and among the products of the Hidilyn Diaz training center in Zamboanga, made it a double medal by snatching the bronze in the clean and jerk (100 kg), which Park also won for new Asian and World Youth records of 107 kg.
Park’s 195 total also now stands as the new record in both the Asian Youth and World Youth Games
“Nakuha pa ng North Korea. Isang kilo lang,” said Peralta, who bagged three gold medals in the IWF Youth and Junior World Championships in Lima, Peru last May. “Pero ok na po yun, kung yun ang pinagkaloob ng Panginoon.”
Boxing provided the other medal for the Filipinos in the final three days of competitions, officially claiming the bronze in the boys’ 46kg following Leo Mhar Lobrido's 5-0 unanimous decision against Abdugan Yorkinjunov of Uzbekistan.
A day after winning a silver in the boys’ 100m butterfly, Jamesray Ajido only finished seventh in the boys’ 50m butterfly.
Action in jiu-jitsu starts on Wednesday where the Philippines hopes to win additional gold, as former world and Asian Games champion Margarita ‘Megie’ Ochoa makes her debut as national team coach.
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