DIAMNIADIO, Senegal-Angel Polo ranked third in the preliminaries of women’s Taijishan of wushu as the Philippines got off to a potential start in the Dakar 4th Youth Olympic Games on Sunday.
Polo momentarily seized the lead with 9.223 points, but eventually wound up third behind former world youth championships gold medalist Ng Zhe Nin of Singapore and Chu Yu En of Chinese-Taipei.
A favorite in the event, Ng garnered 9.300 points with Chu matching Polo’s score in the first of two events-the Taijiquan preliminaries are set Monday with the top eight on combined scores advancing to the final on Tuesday.
‘I had an error, I didn’t keep my grip on the fan properly causing me to lose my balance a bit,’ said Polo, 15, and a bronze medalist in last March’s world juniors championship in Tanjin, China.
Once in a lifetime YOG experience
JAMESRAY MISHAEL AJIDO and Riannah Chantelle Coleman and wushu athlete Angel Polo cherished every moment in their first and only experience parading the country’s colors in the Opening Ceremony of the 4th Youth Olympic Games (YOG) on Saturday (Sunday dawn in Manila) at the Abdoulaye Wade Stadium in Diamniadio.
Ajido proudly waved the Philippine colors with Coleman hoisting the Philippines label mighty and high with Polo and Chef de Mission Rocky Samson waving flaglets during the ceremony that host Dakar and Senegal and the entire African continent displaying to the world its unique culture, dances and music.
‘Very proud, and it’s a very unique experience,’ said Ajido, who on Sunday morning here plunged into action in the men’s 100 meters butterfly where his personal best of 55.01 seconds ranked third-best for a potential podium finish.
Similarly ecstatic were Coleman, who’s swimming in the women’s 200 meters breastroke on Monday, and Polo, who competed in the first of her two events, women’s Taijishian, on Sunday morning at the Diamniadio Expo Centre.
A total of 2,655 athletes aged 14 to 17 from 204 national Olympic committees plus the Refugee Olympic Team are seeing action in 25 medal sports and 10 engagement sports.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino reiterated the difficulty for the nine Filipino athletes here making the podium because of an obvious physical advantage possessed by athletes from Europe and the Americas, but was steadfast in his confidence with the Filipino bets.
Also competing here are Pi Durden Wangkay (men’s 200m) and Naomi Marjorie Caesar (women’s 800m) in athletics, Maritanya Krog (women’s road and individual time trial) in cycling, Tchelzy Maayo and Hillarion Palles III in artistic gymnastics and Jade Justine Justiniane in windsurfing.
Hillarion and Palles were due here on Sunday while Krog and Justiniane are arriving November 5 with their coaches.
Athletes overall will compete in 153 medal events across 25 sports.
Singapore hosted the first summer Youth Games in 2010. Dakar was initially due to host in 2022 but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the Games.
International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry praised Dakar, Senegal and the whole of Africa in her Opening Ceremony speech.
‘This is a historic moment for Senegal, for Africa and for our entire Olympic family’ said Coventry, an Olympic swimming gold medalist from Zimbabwe and the first African head of the IOC.
Conspicuous at the Opening Ceremong was Russia and its 13 athletes who are competing under its national flag for the first time since its suspension for invading Ukraine in 2022.
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The refugee team, meanwhile, consists of six athletes based in Kenya and Uganda athletics, judo and taekwondo.
Singapore hosted the first YOG in 2010, followed by Nanjing in 2018, Buenos Aires in 2018 and Dakar was supposed to host the YOG in 2022 but was postponed because of the pandemic.
Polo will again compete in the women’s Taijiquann preliminaries on Monday, the same day Coleman debuts in the pool in the women’s 200 meters breaststroke heats.
Artistic gymnastics starts on November 7, followed the next day by cycling’s women’s individual time trial, athletics and windsurfing of sailing.
The Philippines has so far two medals in the YOG-Luis Gabriel Moreno won a gold medal in mixed international team event of archery with China’s Li Jiaman in Nanjing and Christian Tio silver in boys’ twin-tip racing of kiteboarding.