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Luke Gebbie. INQUIRER.internet/Tristan Tamayo
A great begin by the Philippines earlier than the thirty first Southeast Asian (SEA) Video games formally obtained going was marred by the exit of 1 medal hopeful even earlier than his competitors may get began.
Filipino-Australian Luke Michael Gebbie, one of many swimmers anticipated to problem for a podium end in Hanoi, Vietnam, was dominated out after he failed his RT-PCR check.
“Too unhealthy he examined constructive,” Philippine Olympic Committee president Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino stated on Saturday. “That’s one much less medal—a possible gold at that—in our marketing campaign.”
The Tokyo Olympian shared a silver medal within the males’s 4×100 meters freestyle relay and copped a bronze within the 50-m freestyle in the course of the 2019 SEA Video games, the place he logged nationwide data within the 50m freestyle (22.57 seconds) and the 50m butterfly (24.34 seconds).
Gebbie didn’t get previous the qualifying heats in Tokyo however set a Philippine file of 49.64 seconds within the 100m free.
The event put a damper on the Philippine marketing campaign, which began with victories from the lads’s soccer squad and handball workforce on Friday, drawing applause from commissioner Ramon Fernandez of the Philippine Sports activities Fee.
“We’re off to a very good begin,” stated Fernandez, Workforce Philippine’s chef de mission. “It’s a very good signal for your complete Philippine delegation.”
Handball triumph
The boys’s handball workforce, made up of virtually the identical squad that bagged the bronze in 2019, produced an 18-16, 18-16 upset of Thailand at Tuan Chau Island in Quang Nihn province. The win got here on the heels of the Azkals Underneath-23’s 4-0 rout of Timor Leste at Viet Tri Stadium in Phu Tho.
The boys’s nationwide soccer workforce took a one-day break and can face defending champion and host Vietnam on Sunday in a troublesome check that might decide simply how far the younger Azkals can go on this match.
The Filipino seaside handball athletes, in the meantime, had been searching for a second consecutive victory and had been tackling Vietnam at press time.
“We’re going up towards the host nation. Let’s hope and pray that we can maintain what we have now began,’’ stated Fernandez.
Three different Filipino athletes in kickboxing initially examined constructive for the virus however had been cleared after a retest early final week.
Diving begins
Regardless of the setback suffered by the aquatics squad, the workforce continues to be brimming with optimism as Filipino-American Ariana Drake competes at first of the diving occasions on Sunday at My Dinh Aquatics Heart.
Philippine Swimming Inc. president Lani Velasco stated Drake will compete within the 1-meter springboard within the morning. After two days, Drake, the 17-year-old diver based mostly in Los Angeles, California, exams her expertise towards the areas’ greatest within the 3-m springboard.
“Ariana Drake is a younger, up-and-coming diver,” Velasco stated. “It’s her first SEA Video games and we hope she will be able to alter seamlessly. After all, our aim is to land on the rostrum, however we additionally wish to handle our expectations. It’s onerous to win a medal with just one diver. Too unhealthy we don’t have divers for synchro occasions.”
Whereas the lack of Gebbie was a blow, a number of aquatics bets are able to step up within the hunt for medals.
“Now we have a very good mixture of veterans and first timers who we hope will determine within the combine for podium finishes,” Velasco stated.
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