By WAYLON GALVEZ

Philippine Sports Commission chairman Butch Ramirez is expected to take action following ‘bullying’ allegations posted on social media by Fil-Japanese karateka Junna Tsukii against the team’s foreign coach.

Several hours after winning the gold medal in the -50kg Kumite category, Tsukii took to her Facebook account and share a lengthy and troubling post apparently against the team’s Turkish coach Okay Arpa.

According to a source, the PSC chief has already been informed of Tsukii’s allegation, and said the government sports agency will take a look at the matter before taking necessary action.

“The chairman has been made aware of the allegations made by Junna Tsukii,” said the source, who requested not to be named, not having the authority to discuss the matter.

“Of course, the PSC will take action, the same with other issues,” he added.

As the government’s arm in sports development, the PSC finances not just the training of national athletes but also the hiring of foreign coaches as requested by different national sports associations.

The Bulletin reached out to Philippine Karatedo Federation head Ricky Lim and Arpa for their comment, but both of them declined.

“No comment muna, ongoing ang event namin e,” said Lim.

Tsukii defeated Dinh Thi Huong of Vietnam for her first gold medal in the biennial meet, two years after a disappointing semifinal loss in Kuala Lumpur.

However, during the team meeting Saturday night after Day 1 of the karatedo competition, Arpa reportedly singled out Tsukii for disparage.

In a lengthy and emotional  Facebook post, the 28-year-old athlete bared her feelings.

“Thank you so much for supporting and cheering me today,” she said. “I’m really happy to win a gold medal at the second Sea Games in my country. But now I’m very sad, even I have gold medal.”

Tsukii said the cold treatment began after she came back last November from the World Senior Championship in Madrid, Spain. She said that was when Arpa started not to talk to her even as she trained for the SEA Games.

A source said that Arpa did not approve of Tsukii’s stint in Madrid. The athlete, however, pushed through with it with the help of sponsors.

 

Source: Manila Bulletin

Brunei translated its vast wealth to a gold medal win by downing erstwhile unbeaten Malaysia 7-2 in polo’s 0-2 goals of the 30th SEA Games Monday at the Miguel Romero Field in Calatagan, Batangas.

Led by Muhamad Farid Abdulah and Huizaimi bib Haji Mahari, the oil-rich Brunei squad got off to a fine start, racing to a 3-0 lead in the first chukker on the way to winning its second gold in the biennial meet.

The gold medal win was also a vindication for Brunei after being beaten by Malaysia 7-2 in the prelims.

The Philippines and Indonesia shared the bronze.

Source: Manila Bulletin

By Nick Giongco

CLARKFIELD, Pampanga–The media exposure given to the premier government-owned sports facilities in the 30th Southeast Asian Games — the Philsports in Pasig and the Rizal Memorial Coliseum and Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila — has prompted the country’s big leagues to inquire about long-term leases.

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC ) deputy executive director Guillermo Iroy told the Manila Bulletin on Monday that even the Philippine Basketball Association has reached out to the PSC and inquired about using it to host games next year.

“They all saw that our facilities have been upgraded,” said Iroy, noting how the televised events and photos that were published of volleyball, taekwondo, gymnastics and weightlifting made a lasting impression on the public.

Aside from the PBA, the Asean Basketball League, the Philippine Volleyball League, UAAP and NCAA as well as big corporations have made their intentions to rent these refurbished venues.

Iroy said the accessibility and ample parking available are reasons behind the rise in inquiries.

The Rizal Coliseum, NAS and Philsports were repaired and furnished with new features six months ago initially to serve as backup sites for the SEAG.

The decision to subject them to rehabilitation proved to be best thing the PSC did as they all passed the test and pleased even the most discriminating spectators.

The Philsports, popularly known as Ultra, used to be the home of the PBA back in the ’90s.

Source: Manila Bulletin

By Waylon Galvez

Game Tuesday (Subic Bay Beach Handball Courts)

6 p.m. –Philippines vs Vietnam

Game Wednesday (Subic Bay Beach Handball Courts)

9 a.m. – Philippines vs Thailand

The Philippine men’s beach handball team moved closer to getting a podium finish as it claimed a second straight win 2-1 against Indonesia in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games Sunday night at the Subic Bay Beach Handball Courts.

The two countries split the two quarters, with the Philippines winning the first period 13-12, and Indonesia taking the second frame 20-18, forcing a shootout which Philippines won 7-6.

The two periods were won via “golden goal” or goals made after the 10-minute period and the score tied. The first to make a goal wins. This is the first time for beach handball in the SEA Games, although Thailand won an indoor handball event in the 2007 Bangkok meet,

Rey Joshua Tabuzo led the Philippines with 11 goals, while Jamael Pangandaman contributed nine goals. The national team won its opening game against Singapore 2-0 last Saturday.

The national team’s win improved its record to 2-0 for four points, followed by Thailand and Vietnam with identical 1-0 cards for two points, while Indonesia and Singapore are both at 0-2 (0 point).

Handball national team mentor Jana Franquelli said the next two games will be crucial in their bid to win a medal since they are up against the top two teams in the region – Vietnam this Tuesday and Thailand on Wednesday.

“So far with two wins, we have a good chance for a podium finish. We still need to wait for the results of all matches,” said Franquelli. “If we win our matches versus Vietnam and Thailand, we win the gold.”

Franquelli said their game opposite Indonesia proved that the players – despite being first timers in playing handball – have shown maturity after a few international exposures including an Asian Championship stint in China and a training camp in Hungary.

The team’s trip was made possible by the Philippine Sports Commission as well as the Philippine Handball Federation Inc. headed by its president Steve Hontiveros and secretary-general Dr. Jay Adalem.

“It was an overall team effort,” said Franquelli. “ The overwhelming support just kept the fighting spirit of the players up, even when we were down on all periods, you can see and feel that the boys wanted to win here at home.”

 

Source: Manila Bulletin

By Agence France-Presse

Olympic champion Joseph Schooling vowed to “fix” his physique after winning only one individual gold medal at the Southeast Asian Games, less than eight months before his title defense at Tokyo 2020.

The 24-year-old Singaporean famously beat his idol, US legend Michael Phelps, at the Rio 2016 Olympics in the 100m butterfly final, but finds himself out of form and out of shape just seven months away from Tokyo.

Schooling was left red-faced at the SEA Games in the Philippines after losing out twice to younger teammates — Darren Chua pushed him into silver position in the 100m freestyle, and Teong Tzen Wei beat him in the 50m butterfly final.

After a dismal performance at this year’s world championships in South Korea, Schooling decided to bulk up because he felt he had “no power and was weak”, the Straits Times quoted him as saying on Sunday after his defeat to Chua.

But Schooling told the newspaper he was unhappy with his current physical condition, adding he will now have to work out what his best weight will be for Tokyo 2020.

“After this I’m definitely going to sit down and chat with Rico (Singapore Sports Institute’s head of sports nutrition Dr Richard Swinburne) and we’ll fix this,” he said, adding it was now a case of getting “back to the drawing board and getting better each day”.

“Of course, no one likes to lose, that’s why we do this. As long as you give it your all, I can’t be too disappointed in the effort but I’m disappointed with the result.

“This is a good reality check,” he said.

Schooling, who won six gold medals at the last SEA Games in 2017, was part of winning teams in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays. His final swim is in Monday’s men’s 4x100m medley.

je/th

© Agence France-Presse

Source: Manila Bulletin

By Betheena Unite

The Philippine women’s volleyball team failed to capture a medal after bowing to Indonesia in a five-set thriller 25-20, 24-26, 25-15, 20-25, 16-14 Monday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Holding two match points in the deciding set 14-12, the nationals squandered the lead, allowing Indonesia to put  together four straight points for a 16-14 finish for the bronze medal.

Down one set, the Filipinas showed grit in the fourth frame and led by as many as nine 21-12, going on to win the set and force a decider.

The Nationals carried their momentum over into the fifth set and managed to counter every attack from the Indonesians for a 6-5 edge on Eya Laure’s attack.

The Philippines led 10-7 and 12-8 after that and looked headed to a coasting victory before Indonesia came back with an 8-3 scoring spree to deny the Filipinas a podium finish in front of thousands of screaming hometown fans.

 

 

Ces Molina led the PH team with 17 points and 12 excellent digs. Standouts Alyssa Valdez and Majoy Baron tallied 14 and 11 points, respectively.

The trio of Mylene Paat, Jovelyn Gonzaga and Laure had seven points under their names.

Indonesia spiker Megawati Hangestri Pertiwi led the Indonesians’ bid with 35 big points, off 31 attacks, two blocks and two service aces.

Indonesia led in every department, posting 67 attack points against the Philippines’ 57. They also had more blocks than the national team, 12-8, and service aces 8-6.

The Philippines, however, had more digs 71-60 and excellent sets 26-18.

Source: Manila Bulletin

By the Associated Press

LAUSANNE, Switzerland  — The Russian flag and national anthem were banned from next year’s Tokyo Olympics and other major sports events for four years on Monday.

Russia’s hosting of world championships in Olympic sports also face being stripped after the World Anti-Doping Agency executive committee approved a full slate of recommended sanctions as punishment for state authorities tampering with a Moscow laboratory database.

Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in major events only if they are not implicated in positive doping tests or if their data was not manipulated, according to the WADA ruling.

Still, it is unclear how the ruling will affect Russian teams taking part in world championships such as soccer’s World Cup.

Russia’s anti-doping agency can appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport within 21 days.

Legal fallout from the WADA ruling seems sure to dominate preparations for the Tokyo Olympics, which open on July 24.

Evidence shows that Russian authorities tampered with a Moscow laboratory database to hide hundreds of potential doping cases and falsely shift the blame onto whistleblowers, WADA investigators and the International Olympic Committee said last month.

“Flagrant manipulation” of the Moscow lab data was “an insult to the sporting movement worldwide,” the IOC said last month.

However, WADA’s inability to fully expel Russia from the Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Games frustrated the doping watchdog’s vice president.

“I’m not happy with the decision we made today. But this is as far as we could go,” said Linda Helleland, a Norwegian lawmaker who serves on WADA executive committee and has long pushed for a tougher line against Russia. “This is the biggest sports scandal the world has ever seen. I would expect now a full admission from the Russians and for them to apologize on all the pain all the athletes and sports fans have experienced.”

Handing over a clean database to WADA was a key requirement for Russia to help bring closure to a scandal that has tainted the Olympics over the last decade.

Although the IOC has called for the strongest possible sanctions, it wants those sanctions directed at Russian state authorities rather than athletes or Olympic officials.

That position was opposed by most of WADA’s athlete commission. It wanted the kind of blanket ban Russia avoided for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games after a state-run doping program was exposed by media and WADA investigations after Russia hosted the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

“This entire fiasco created by Russia has cheated far too many athletes of their dreams and rightful careers, for far too long,” the WADA athlete panel said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

Russia previously signaled it would appeal the ruling. That must be filed by the Russian anti-doping agency, known as RUSADA. That body was declared non-compliant on Monday, 15 months after it was reinstated by WADA in defiance of athlete opposition.

The decision to appeal has been stripped from RUSADA chief executive Yuri Ganus, an independent figure criticizing Russian authorities’ conduct on the doping data issue. Authority was passed to the agency’s supervisory board after an intervention led by the Russian Olympic Committee.

The ROC on Saturday labeled the expected sanctions as “illogical and inappropriate.”

Russia has stuck to its claim that deceptive edits in the data were in fact made by WADA’s star witness, Grigory Rodchenkov. The former Moscow lab director’s flight into the witness protection program in the United States was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary.

Technical reasons were claimed — and debunked by WADA investigators — for why the data appeared to have been edited shortly before the delayed handover in January.

Source: Manila Bulletin

By Kristel Satumbaga

Jerry Olsim gave the Philippines its first gold medal in kickboxing on Monday in the 30th Southeast Asian Games at the Cuneta Astrodome.

Olsim, a mixed martial arts specialist, dominated Thailand’s Klinming Sarayut to win the men’s -69kg kick light division.

The Nationals, however, failed to make it 3-of-3 on the penultimate day of the competition after Renalyn Dacquel and Jomar Balangui yielded to their Vietnamese counterparts.

Dacquel, a pro boxer, lost to Nguyen Thi Hang Nga, 2-1 in the women’s -48kg full contact while Balangui bowed to Phan Ba Hoi, 2-1, in the men’s -54kg low kick.

The PH still has one more shot at the gold when Gina Iniong battles in the women’s -55kg kick light category on Tuesday.

Source: Manila Bulletin

By Nick Giongco

CAPAS, Tarlac—Clinton Bautista of the Philippines provided a gold medal that was totally unexpected on Monday, clocking 13.97 seconds in the 110m hurdles and beating defending champion Rayzam Shah of Malaysia in a photo finish in the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

Bautista, 27, took the bronze two years ago in Kuala Lumpur and was ecstatic with his feat.

“I was just focused,” said Bautista, who hails from nearby Camiling town.

Source: Manila Bulletin

By Kristel Satumbaga

Kurt Barbosa saved the best for last for the Philippine taekwondo team after clinching the gold medal in the men’s -54kg (fin) category on Monday in the 30th Southeast Asian Games at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

The 20-year-old Barbosa first dominated Vietnam’s Hoang Duc Anh in the semifinals, 58-6, before returning a few hours later to demolish Indonesia’s Reinaldy Atmanegara, 26-10.

It was the lone victory for the Nationals on the final day of the taekwondo competition, sealing their campaign with eight gold, nine silver and four bronze medals.

Four golds came from poomsae and the remaining three came from Sunday’s kyorugi courtesy of Pauline Lopez, Sam Morrison and Kristopher Robert Uy.

Barbosa, a Rookie-MVP in last season’s UAAP representing National University, said his SEAG win is his stepping-stone to achieve his dream of making into the Olympics in the future.

“Gustung-gusto ko po talagang mag-Olympics. Actually yan po ang goal naming lahat sa Philippine taekwondo,” he said.

Rheza Aragon fell short of adding another gold to the PH chest after yielding to Thailand’s Panipak Wongphattanakit, 35-2, in the women’s -49kg (fly) finals.

Other local bets settled for bronzes after losing in the semifinals. They were Veronica Garces (women’s -46kg fin), Dex Chavez (men’s -58kg fly), Kurt Pajuelas (men’s -63kg bantam) and Jessica Canabal (women’s -53kg bantam).

The PH team’s performance eclipsed its two-gold, three-silver, four-bronze medal haul at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur edition.

Source: Manila Bulletin