PH delegation to Patis now 20 and counting

PHOTO: JEROME ASCAÑO

SWIMMERS Kayla Sanchez and Jarod Hatch, judoka Kiyomi Watanabe, and women golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina have added their names to the Philippine team for the Paris Olympics, raising the country’s delegation to 20.

Pagdanganan and Ardina were the latest inclusions after the International Golf Federation (IGF) released the final roster of the 60 golfers who will compete in Paris early today.

“Great news, and we can even ask for more,” said Philippine Olympic Committtee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino from Metz, France, where he’s overseeing the pre-Paris training camp at La Moselle with chef de mission Jonvic Remulla.

“Each day, as the countdown to the Olympics dwindles, the morale goes higher and higher,” Tolentino added.

Sanchez, who switched nationality from Canada only two years ago, will swim in the women’s 100-meter freestyle while Hatch qualified for the men’s 100m butterfly.

Watanabe, on the other hand, will be in her second consecutive Olympics after making it through the continental qualification route in women’s -63 kgs.

Pagdanganan will also be in her second Olympics after competing in Tokyo in 2021 while Ardina will be playing in her first although she qualified to compete in the Rio Olympics but declined fearing contamination from a Zika virus outbreak in that country prior to the start of the Games.

At 20 athletes, the Philippines surpassed Tokyo 2020 where Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo won the country’s first Olympic gold medal. There were 19 Filipinos in the Tokyo Games.

“But we’re expecting more,” said Tolentino as he awaits an official announcement from World Athletics on who will join world No. 2 men’s pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena in Paris.

David Nepomuceno ran the men’s 100 and 200 meters in the Philippines’ Olympic debut in Paris 1924 and the country has participated in every Olympics after that — interrupted only by the boycott of Moscow 1980. So this year will be the 100th year of its Olympic participation.

“We’re chasing more history, we’re setting the ante higher,” said Tolentino, whose target is to match or surpass the one-gold, two-silver and one-bronze medal tally in Tokyo.

The other Filipino qualifiers for Paris are weightlifters Vanessa Sarno, John Febuar Ceniza and Elreen Ando; boxers Aira Villegas, Hergie Bacyadan, Carlo Paalam, Nesthy Petecio and Eumir Felix Marcial; rower Joanie Delgaco; fencer Samantha Catantan; and gymnasts Carlos Yulo, Emma Malabuyo and Levi Ruivivar.