HIGHLY-COVETED slots to the 3rd Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina this October will be up for grabs in the 4th Asian Senior and Junior Trampoline Gymnastics Championships opening on Saturday at the University of Makati basketball gym.
Three YOG slots each in the boys’ and girls’ divisions will be at stake in the two-day competition organized by the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and the City Government of Makati.
“This international gymnastics event is important since the Asian juniors is a YOG qualifying competition so we can expect the best young trampoline athletes from all over the continent coming over to take part in this tournament,” Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion said of the tournament sanctioned by the Asian Gymnastics Union.
Serious in its bid to score a 1-2-3 sweep in both divisions, China, which took a gold and silver medal in the 2014 Nanjing YOG, is fielding four entries each in the individual boys’ and girls’ events of the meet also supported by the Makati city government, headed by Mayor Abigail Binay.
A select group of 12 athletes from all over the world will be competing in the Youth Olympic Games scheduled Oct. 6 to 16 in Argentine capital.
Not to be outdone, Japan, which garnered a girls’ silver medal from Rana Nakano in Nanjing four years ago, is also sending four athletes each in both brackets in what looms as a two-way dogfight for top honors in Asian trampoline championships.
Carrying the Philippine colors in the juniors event are a promising pair of young trampoline athletes in Shane Francis Peralta and Fiona Mae Ventenilla, both 16, according to national coach Ryan Rexel Fabriga.
Also seeing action in the competition are trampoline campaigners from Hong Kong, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.