TAIPEI—The sport of badminton brought the smiles back to the Philippine contingent in the 29th Summer Universiade.
Adrian Daniele Rigonan swept his singles’ match and Ruben Haramel Jr. and Christine Garin dominated their mixed doubles’ encounter on a busy Sunday afternoon when most of their fellow participants are packing their bags and returning home.
Rigonan, a student of St. Benilde, outclassed Taizya Luzambo of Zambia, 21-11, 21-13, the round-of-128 men’s singles of the badminton competitions at the Taipei gymnasium
The 21-year-old Rigonan will meet Ming Nok Yeung of Hong Kong in a crucial round-of-64 encounter that could make or break the country’s fourth straight Universiade appearance.
Yeong drew an opening-day bye,
Also advancing to the secound round of the men’s singles are JC Clarito and Mac Lawrence Marfa of La Salle-Lipa, who drew byes.
Clarito will test Kenta Nishimoto of Japan while Marfa wiill meet Lucas Florent Claerbout of France.
Haramel and Garin, a student of Adamson, outsteadied Alexander La and Victoria Chen of the United States in straight sets, 21-16, 21-18 in the round-of-64 of the mixed doubles.
Haramel and Garin will take on Eric Viong and Claudia Lam of Australia in the round-of-32.
The Australian duo beat the Singapiresn tandem of Jia Yi Koh and Kelly Yan, 14-21, 21-13, 21-16.
The rest of the badminton stars fell by the wayside.
In the women’s singles, Dezelle Loverly Magallano of Lyceum of the Philippines fell, 10-21, 9-21 to Cheryl Chung of Hong Kong; Dennise Estrella of Mapua lost 5-21, 11-21 to Mei-Hui Chiang of Chinese-Taipei; and Andrea Samantha Citron of La Salle-Lipa bowed 16-21, 11-21 to Janke van der Vyver of South Africa.
The other mixed doubles team of Jerome Pechera and Gilly Chavez absorbed a sorry 15-21, 21-19, 17-21 setback to Toma Przemyslaw Szydlowski and Magdalena Witek of Poland.
Over at the Taipei Stadium, Aristeo de la Pena and Rogil Pablo both struggled in the qualifying rounds of the men’s long jump.
In table tennis, the women’s double of Athena Comaingking and Diana Oliveros suffered a three-set defeat to Lok Yee Lo and Wai Sze Lui of Hong Kong in their round-16 encounter at the NTX Xinzhuang gymnasium,
Wushu failed to deliver in the early stages of the four-day competitions at the Hsinchu County gymnasium.
Barely losing their matches were Erick Pasno (men’s sanda/60kg); Kelly Marcelo (men’s sanda/70jf); Elijah Sean Sy (men’s taolu -changquan); Gladys Sia (women’s taolu changquan) and Czarina Joy Hagos (women’s taolu – nanquan/nandao)
The Filipinos’ participation in the Universiade is supported by Federation of School Sports Association of the Philippines, headed by David Ong and Alvin Tai Lian, and sponsored by San Mjguel Corp., Bestank and Garfield Sportswear.
