Muay, taekwondo, teqball bets strike

MANAMA – Here comes the brigade. A proud team of world champions from muay secured a pair of bronze medals with a chance at the gold even as taekwondo and teqball chipped in a silver and a bronze, respectively, in the 3rd Asian Youth Games at the Exhibition World Bahrain here yesterday.

Lyre Anie Ngina, a 14-year-old world champion, came through with the best score of 8.90 out of eight participants in the girls’ wai kru qualification phase for 14 and 15 years old at the EWB’s Grand Hall C, D, E.

With that, the ninth-grader from University of Baguio secured at least a bronze for being one of the four who qualified to Sunday’s finals where she will have a chance at an even more precious mint.

And she vowed to go for it.

“I was so nervous in the qualification that I almost lost my balance,” said Ngina. “I hope to be confident in the finals for me to have a chance at winning.”

Also assuring the country another bronze in the same event was Jasmine Dagame, who was second in the 16-17 division after an 8.83 behind only Thai Rungthipwa Koakaw’s 8.90.

Dagame, a world championship bronze winner, Koakaw and two others advance to the finals.

Kristen Ambriel Aguila succumbed to Zeinab Shahrriari of Iran to settle for the silver in the girls’ individual recognized poomsae at Hall 2.

In teqball at Hall 10, Crystal Cariño and Nicole Tabucol bested host Bahrain’s Rawan Abdulaziz and Fatima Albanna, 10-12, 12-10, 14-12, to claim the girls’ doubles bronze in the discipline that is a hybrid of sepak takraw and table tennis.

In all, the country has now raked in a gold, a silver and two bronzes with the two bronzes in muay to be counted only after Sunday’s finals.

It wasn’t all sunshine for the Filipinos as Euan Arrow Ramos and Peter Sancho del Rosario ran into misfortunes and missed out on a medal in triathlon’s boys’ individual sprint, which started and finished at the Sofitel Bahrain.

Ramos crashed out and suffered bruises all over after a spill on one of the turns while Del Rosario was disqualified due to an infraction on the second transition of the race that drew 39 participants.