FILIPINO female grapplers Sydney Sy-Tancontian and Jeniva Consigna bagged bronze medals for an impressive debut at the 2024 World Beach Sambo Championship in Casablanca, Morocco.
Sydney Sy-Tancontian, the most accomplished Sambo athlete from the Philippines, captured bronze in the women’s +72kg category.
In the quarterfinals, she won decisively over Guinea’s Ramatoulaye Sylla before falling to Romania’s Katsiaryna Kaliuzhnaya.
Joining Sy-Tancontian in the spotlight was 21-year-old Jeniva Consigna, who also earned a bronze medal in the women’s -72kg division.
Consigna pounded out a hard-earned victory over Kazakh Dauletzhan Nazereke in the quarterfinals, before she was bested by Romania’s Volha Maleika in the semifinals.
Sy-Tancontian’s highest achievement was her bronze-medal finish in the women’s sports sambo +80kg category at last year’s World Championship in Yerevan, Armenia.
In the same occasion, she was also elected as chairperson of the Athletes’ Commission of the International Sambo Federation (FIAS), a prestigious position she assumed in just her second year on the commission.
Philippine sambo continues to gain international recognition, thanks to its athletes’ recent success.
Last July, Team Philippines concluded its campaign at the Asian & Oceania SAMBO Championships in Macau with three silver medals and one bronze.
One of the standout performers was Aislinn Agnes Yap, a Paris Open champion, who earned two silver medals in the women’s -80kg sport sambo and Combat Sambo categories. She narrowly missed out on gold to Kazakhstan’s Madina Yerzhan in both finals.
Meanwhile, Sy-Tancontian made a triumphant return from a brief hiatus due to her studies, securing a silver medal in the women’s +80kg class after a tough match against Uzbekistan’s Feruza Khurozova in the finals.
