Rebuilding PH women’s gymnastics team wins first SEAG medal in 10 years

SINGAPORE – The Philippine Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team surprised even themselves as they contributed to the country’s medal tally with a bronze in the Women’s Team Final on Sunday, 7 at Bishan Sports Hall in Singapore.  

Malaysia and Singapore bagged the Gold and Silver respectively, as the Philippines narrowly edged out Vietnam to capture the Bronze by only 0.15 point. 

This was a very pleasant and unexpected result as the Philippines is currently in the rebuilding and development phase of the national program, with the coaching tandem of Jasmin Valenton-Ortega and Aldrin Castañeda just partnering up beginning January of this year. 

Competing with teams with a long head start on their programs, foreign coaches that have lived in their countries for years, regular training periods in China, not to mention more resources and budget for training and equipment, the team entered the competition as decided underdogs. 

The girls however, dug deep and managed to achieve what the country hasn’t done in 10 years – stand on that podium as a team. The last Philippine team to medal for Artistic Gymnastics was when the Men’s team won bronze in the 2005 SEA Games held in Manila. 

As the last gymnast finished her routine on the balance beam, all the teams were nervously waiting in their corners. The big screen flashed the results and the Malaysian team starts jumping while crying and hugging each other. At another corner, the Philippine team did exactly the same.

 The tears finally came  from all the held in pressure and the girls and both coaches looked so happy and radiant. For now that bronze looks so much like gold and hopefully serves as an inspiration to do even better in their next outing.

Competition continues for 3 more days as two of our girls, Ava Verdeflor and Lizzy Leduc qualified to the Individual All-Around Final and Event Finals for Uneven Bars and Floor for Verdeflor, and Balance Beam and Floor for Leduc. – Rappler.com