RP ends Asian Youth Games campaign with only a silver to show

The Philippines’ harvest in the 1st Asian Youth Games was not a bountiful one – only a silver medal to show – but the team found a silver lining in sending three swimmers to four events in next year’s Youth Olympic Games.

At the conclusion of action in the AYG on Monday, the last of the Filipino bets bowed out of the medal play one after the other.

Dyan Coronacion finished sixth in bowling while tankers Jasmine Alkhaldi, Jessie Khing Lacuna and Dorothy Hong capped the country’s week-long stint in the 43-nation meet for athletes aged 14-17 with a string of setbacks in their final events.

Coronacion rolled a total of 1633 pinfalls on the second block of the girls’ masters for an aggregate score of 3338, a performance which failed to neutralize the bronze-medal effort of Korea’s Ui-jin Sim (3491) after two blocks.

Singapore had a 1-2 finish in the event with Hui Fen New clinching the gold with 3524 pinfalls and Krishna Darshini snaring the silver with 3502.

Alkhaldi ended up eighth and last in the 100m freestyle for girls with a clocking of 59.4 seconds while Lacuna finished seventh (53.07) in the same event for boys.

Something to crow about

The trio of Banjo Borja, Alkhaldi and Lacuna, however, gave the Nationals something to crow about after they qualified for the 2010 Youth Olympics.

Borja accomplished the qualifying mark during the heat of the 200m individual medley Sunday after Alkhaldi and Lacuna met the standard time in the girls’ and boys’ 100m freestyle the day before. Lacuna will also compete in the 200m free of the Youth Olympics.

The 16-year-old Alkhaldi also fumbled in the 50m free finals after landing sixth with a 27.21-second clocking.

Singapore’s Ting Wen Quah (25.43) and Xiang Qi Amanda Lim (25.68) provided a double-medal victory for the host country while Hoi Shun Stephanie Au of Hong Kong settled for bronze (26.22).

Borja missed the finals of the 200m breaststroke for boys after ending up fifth in the heat with a time of 2:36.29. Kyrgyzstan’s Dmitri Aleksandrov topped the qualifying heat (2:26.40) in the event.

Lone bright spot

The only real bright spot for the Philippines came from Stephanie Cimatu, who nailed a silver in the javelin throw Friday that officially put the country in the medal tally.

Still, the country was way behind the top medal producers, led by China, which amassed 21 golds, 18 silvers and eight bronzes. Korea was second with 18 golds, 14 silvers and 12 bronzes followed by Thailand (7-5-2), Japan (5-6-1) and host Singapore (5-3-12).

The Philippines, which sent 61 athletes in nine disciplines, wound up 15th overall, just six places better than Indonesia and Myanmar, which both pocketed a bronze medal.

The Filipinos’ campaign in the inaugural AYG was stymied even before the tournament formally opened, no thanks to Influenza A(H1N1).

One of the RP football players tested positive for the virus and the rest of the team was placed under quarantine, prompting the organizers to eventually scratch the team off the roster of participants, along with another A(H1N1)-hit team from Hong Kong.

A dry-run for Singapore’s hosting of the Youth Olympic Games, the AYG will have its closing ceremonies on Tuesday.