Danang To Host the 13th ASEAN School Games

 

The 13th edition of the ASEAN School Games (ASG 13) is scheduled to take place from 31st of May to 9th of June 2024 in Da Nang City. This marks the second time Vietnam has hosted this event, with the previous one held in Hanoi in 2013.

 

The ASEAN Schools Games Council has approved the organization plan, the number of sports, and the number of medals for the Games. Accordingly, a total of 6 sports will be contested with 107 medal sets. 

 

These include Swimming with 36 medal sets, Basketball with 2 medal sets, Badminton with 7 medal sets, Athletics with 36 medal sets, Pencak Silat with 16 medal sets, and Vovinam with 10 medal sets.

 

According to the Organizing Committee, an estimated 1,500 athletes, coaches, and delegates from 10 Southeast Asian countries are expected to participate in the event. The total number of personnel involved in organizing the event is approximately 3,500 people.

 

The slogan of #ASG2024 is "Connect and Shine", the competition will connect students from Southeast Asian countries giving them the opportunity to show off their talents and unite the Southeast Asian generation for strong integration and development.

A Silver for Philippines in Beach Volleyball

 

Philippine beach volleyball is still giving us a surprise when the duo of James Buytrago and Rancel Varga made it to the podium at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour - Nuvali in Sta, Rosa, Laguna in the Philippines.

 

Buytrago & Varga settled for silver medal after losing to Czech Republic's Krystof Jan Oliva and Vaclav Kurka in the finals, 21-16, 16-21, 13-21. Going to the finals, the duo defeated Latvia in the semifinals, 21-14, 21-16.

 

The last time Philippines won in this kind of tournament was in 2022, when Sisi Rondina and Jovelyn Gonzaga ruled the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures after edging compatriot Jen Eslapor and Floremel Rodriguez, 22-24, 21-12, 15-12, in the women's final at Subic Bay Sand Court.

 

Philippines has produced good results in beach volleyball. 

SEA Only Reached Two Final Events at Asian Badminton

 

It was an early exit at the quarterfinals for many of the badminton players from the Southeast Asian region at the Badminton Asia Championships 2024 held in Ningbo, China. But Southeast Asia did not went home empty handed as Jonatan Christie of Indonesia and the pair of Sze Fei Goh and Nur Izzuddin of Malaysia made it to the podium.

The pair of Goh and Izzuddin was to battle their compatriot Aaron Chia & SOH Wooi Yik in the semifinals. The match ended 21-14, 21-18 in favor of Goh and Izzuddin while the 2020 Tokyo bronze medalists has to settle for bronze medal. 

 

In the finals, it was tough battle as they falter to host China's Liang & Wang in the Men's Doubles finals. The match ended, 21-17, 15-21, 21-10, in favor of the Chinese team. They finished runner-up.

In the men's singles, it was Jonatan Christie who saved the region for capturing the singles title. Christie defeated China's LI Shi Feng in the finals, 21-15, 21-16. Before going to the finals, he defeated another Chinese player Shi, 18-21, 21-19, 21-12. 

 

 

SISB & Bangkok Aerobic Gymnastics 2024

🤸‍♀️ GYMNASTICS | Congratulations to Philippines 🇵🇭, Vietnam 🇻🇳 and host Thailand for winning medals at the SISB & Bangkok Aerobic Gymnastics held from April 6 to 8.

For Team Philippines 🇵🇭

🥇Anton Dungog (Age Group Individual Men)
🥇Arcenio Cadlos (Senior Individual Men)
🥇Dorothy Asuncion, James Yray & Enrico Ostia (Senior Trio)
🥈Charmaine Dolar (Senior Individual Women)

For Team Vietnam 🇻🇳

🥇 Minh Anh (Individual Woman - Age Group)
🥇 Lan Phuong (Individual Woman - Junior)
🥈 Muyan Mim (Individual Man - Age Group)

Team Thailand 🇹🇭

🥇 Aero Kids (Aero Dance - Nat. Dev.)
🥇 Dream Team (Trio Rising Star)
🥈Serina Rofolo (Individual Woman - Junior)
🥈 Dream Team (Group Nat. Dev.)
🥉 Fanki Dakon (Individual Man - Age Group)
🥉 (Individual Woman)
5th - (Individual Woman - Rising Stars)
6th Balarusiti Baraku (Individual Woman - Junior)
6th - Venus (Individual Woman - Rising Stars)

Alex Eala Won First-Ever Doubles Title

 

📷 Alex Eala Facebook

Alex Eala of the Philippines and doubles partner Darja Semenistaja from Latvia won over top-seed pair of Fanny Stollár of Hungary and Naiktha Bains Great Britain in the finals, 7-6, 6-3, of the ITF WTT W50 Pune held in India. This is Alex Eala's first ever doubles title and first title of the year.

Before going into the finals, the duo defeated Japanese opponents in the semifinals, 7-6, 6-3, and bested Jessie Aney of United States and Lena Papadakis of Germany in the quarterfinals, 6-4, 2-6, 10-4.

In the singles event, the two tennis sensations faced each other in the quarterfinal round where Semenistaja won over Eala, 7-6, 6-0.

Good Fight From SEA Young Keglers

Six young Southeast Asian bowlers competed at the IBF Youth World Cup 2024 in Lima, Peru from January 19 to 27.

 

These were Malaysia's Nur Hazirah Binti Ramli and Megat Zaqrul Haiqal, Philippines' Danielle Lazo and Artegal Barrientos and Singapore's Ning Tay and Aiman Raedyn Lim Jen.

 

From the six young keglers, only Haiqal of Malaysia and Ning Tay of Singapore reached the semifinals of their respective divisions.

 

However, the two bowlers finished outside the medal podium of the competition. Haiqal settled 4th after losing to Lukas Jelinek of Czech Republic in the Boys' bronze medal match, 0-2 (223-224, 192-196) while Tay had the same fate losing to Sara Duque of Colombia in Grils' division, 2-0 (207-210, 212-225).

Meanwhile, Singapore's Aiman Raedyn Lim Jen & Nur Hazirah Binti Ramli of Malaysia failed to advance in the semifinals after losing to their respective opponents in the quarterfinals. While Philippine bets did not advance to the second stage of the competition and both ended in 10th place.

 

Southeast Asian bowlers are in the right direction as our SEA bowlers had a good fight in this World Cup event.

All photos used are credited to its rightful owners via Facebook Page of Bowling Malaysia, Singapore Bowling Federation & Philippine Bowling Federation, Inc.

Campeol Bring Thailand's First Winter Olympic Medal

📷 Figure and Speed Skating Association of Thailand

Agnese Campeol became the first athlete to bring home Thailand’s first medal from any Winter Olympic Games. Campeol saw action in the Women's Monobob at the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics and won the silver medal with a time of 1:54.17 behind Denmark’s Maja Voigt who won the gold medal.

 

Voigt recorded a winning time of 1:53.31 while the bronze medal was clinched by Romania's Mihaela Alexia Anton. 

 

This is also the first medal from Southeast Asian athlete in any Winter Olympic Games.

 

#Gangwon2024 | Philippines Made It to The Medal Round

📷  Screengrab via Olympics (YouTube)

Peter Joseph Groseclose of the Philippines finished 5th place in the Final A medal round of the men's 500m short track speed skating at the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics in Korea. Groseclose stumbled at the last lap near the finish line and got a penalty to finished last in the 5-man final event.

Groseclose gave an impressive performances in the men's 500m finishing first place in the Heat, semifinal and in the quarterfinal rounds. Below are Groseclose time in the said rounds.

• Heat 5: 42.019 (1st)Quarterfinal 3: 41.329 (1st)
• Semifinal 2: 41.697 (1st)
• Final A: Penalty

Philippines is represented by three athletes at this year's Winter Youth Olympics in Gangwon, Korea. These are Avery Uriel Balbanida, Laetaz Amihan Eabe and Groseclose.

 

Field Hockey Qualification Closed

 

The qualification for Field Hockey for Paris Olympics 2024 is already closed and twenty-four teams who qualified from various qualification events are determined.

From Asia, India will compete in the Men's Division while China and Japan are qualified in the women's division.

Malaysia who competed in the last qualifying events in Valencia, Spain and in Muscat, Oman failed to make it to the Paris Olympics.

Below are the qualified teams in Field Hockey to the Paris Olympics.

MEN: France, Australia, Netherlands, India, Argentina, South Africa, Belgium, Spain, Germany & Great Britain.

WOMEN: MEN: France, Australia, Netherlands, China, Argentina, South Africa, United States, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Spain & Great Britain.

 

 

Malaysia Women's Hockey team Miss Olympic Ticket to Paris

Photo via Malaysian Hockey Confederation FB

 

Malaysia's Women's Hockey team ended its Pool B campaign in the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers 2024 in Valencia, Spain with 0W-3L record and bids goodbye to its Olympic dream in Paris, France.  

Malaysia was defeated by host Spain in their first match, 0-7 and another defeat from Canada on the following day, 0-3.

Their last game was against Great Britain that resulted to 1-8 loss. Malaysia will now play for classification round.

The qualifier is being held at the Estadio Beterodi from January 13 to 20 with 8 competing teams divided into two groups where top two teams from each group advancing to semifinals. Only the top 3 teams will qualify to Paris Olympics.