PHL ends campaign at 2018 Youth Olympic Games

ATTEMPTS by the Philippine Team to add to its medal tally in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, fell short, leaving the contingent with one medal to show for — a silver — in the third edition of the sporting meet.

Archer Nicole Tagle and golfers Yuka Saso and Carl Janno Corpus had their chances to hand the Philippines more medals but could not find the breakthrough they needed to do so.

Tagle, a silver medallist in the Southeast Asian Games, met Alyssia Tromans-Ansell of Great Britain in the elimination round of the women’s recurve individual on Tuesday (Manila time) and was ahead, 4-2, after three sets.

Tromans-Ansell though mounted a rally in the last two frames for a 6-4 victory that propelled her to the quarterfinals.

“I did my best and gave everything I had,’’ said Tagle after her round of 16 exit at the Parque Sarmiento archery range.

The pair of Corpus and Saso in the mixed team golfing event, meanwhile, assembled together a score of eight-over 148 on the final day, finding themselves out of the medal race after three rounds at the Hurlingham Club in Buenos Aires.

They were still in contention during the opening day at fourunder, but bombing out on the next 18 holes with a five-over proved to be disastrous that left them chasing the leaders.

The Thai team of Atthaya Thitikul and Vanchai Luangnitikul took home the gold while the United States duo of Lucy Li and Akshay Bhatia won the silver.

Kiteboarder Christian Tio was the lone medal winner for the Philippines, winning silver in the men’s kiteboarding IKA Twin Tip Racing on Sunday.

Despite failing to notch a gold medal, Philippine chef de mission Jonne Go said their Youth Olympic bid was still a success.

“For me, this is a huge success for Team Philippines. We almost had two medals here,’’ Ms. Go said, referring to Saso who had a chance to bag a medal in the women’s individual stroke play last week.

The 17-year-old Saso fell in a three-cornered playoff for silver and bronze and eventually lost her bid for a podium finish.

To date, archer Gab Moreno is the lone Filipino gold medallist in the Youth Olympic Games, winning the top hardware in 2014 in Nanjing, China.

The 2018 Youth Olympic Games officially comes to an end on Oct. 19. —

PSC-POC MEDIA MEMBERS OF THE PHILIPPINE YOG TEAM (from left to right) Golfer Yuka Saso, chef de mission Jonne Go, PSC executive director Merly Ibay, Philippine ambassador to Argentina Linglingay Lacanlale, archer Nicole Tagle and Jann Mari Nayre of table tennis. Standing behind them are golfer Carl Janno Corpus, kiteboarder Christian Tio and fencer Lawrence Tan.