THE Philippines bagged a silver medal in the junior girls’ Under-19 team event of the 2023 Sourtheast Asian Youth table tennis championship in Brunei.
Kheith Rhynne Cruz, Chrishien Mae Santillan, Althea Jade Gudes, Jelaine Monteclaro, and Zachi Chua lost to Thailand, 3-1, in the finals but the silver medal in the seven-nation competition was the best finish by any Philippine women’s team in competitions organized by the Southeast Asian Table Tennis Association (Seatta).
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Cruz, Santillan, Gudes, and Monteclaro swept all of their matches in Group B including a 3-1 victory over Singapore, one of top teams in the region in table tennis. The Philippine squad also defeated Brunei, 3-0, and Malaysia, 3-1, to top the group before defeating Vietnam, 3-1, in the crossover semifinals.
“The silver medal will serve as motivation to come up with more programs to discover new talents for the national team,” said Philippine Table Tennis Federation Inc. president Ting Ledesma.
Cruz was coming off a stint in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia before she helped the youth team produce a silver medal in the Seatta tournament.
Cruz was also a product of the national selection tournament that was staged last March to determine the composition of the squad for the Cambodia SEA Games that saw Richard Gonzales and John Russel Misal capturing a bronze in the men’s doubles.
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