MANILA, Philippines — FOUR male and two female athletes earned qualification in modern pentathlon as the Team Philippines grows bigger by the week for the Nagoya-Aichi 20thAsian Games in September.
Just last week, two poomsae and kyorugi athletes in taekwondo made the grade for the Asian Games with Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino gaining more confidence for a better performance in the games set September 19 to October 4.
“We got the email from the organizers about the qualification of six modern pentathlon athletes and that’s another good news for our campaign,” Tolentino said. “The opportunities to do better in Nagoya and Aichi continues to grow wider.”
The Philippines gotfour gold, two silver and 12 bronze medals in the Hangzhou 2022 (2023) edition and with Paris 2024 Olympics gymnastics double gold medalist Carlos Yulo and reigning champion and record holder pole vaulter EJ Obiena leading the charge, Tolentino said the chances are getting bolder.
“We’re hoping that more of our athletes will qualify for the Asian Games, where the competitions have gotten close to the level of the Olympics,” Tolentino said.
One of the more welcome developments for the Asian Games was the qualification of the men and women teams in indoor volleyball—women’s beach volleyball was a shoo-in following the gold medal won in last December’s Bangkok Asian Games. TMT
