MANILA – Filipinas failed to sustain their dream start. They suffered a lopsided 5-1 loss to South Korea in the 19th Asian Games women’s football group stage last night at the Wenzhou Sports Centre Stadium in China.
The Philippine women’s football team opened the game with an eighth minute stunner as Sarina Bolden converted a powerful right-footed shot inside the penalty box for a 1-0 advantage.
But the Bolden connection seemed to have served as the fire in South Korea’s belly as Garam Chun smashed in a goal in the 12th minute to tie the score at 1-1 before they took a 2-1 edge with Hwayeon Son’s header just before the halftime break.
The goal spree continued for South Korea in the second half as Ji Soyun drilled a penalty in the 52nd minute followed by back-to-back conversions from Son to complete her hat-trick.
The Mark Toscano-mentored Philippine women’s football team will look to bounce back against Myanmar on Thursday evening to keep their hopes of reaching the quarterfinals alive.
Earlier in the day, wushu athlete Jones Inso delivered the country’s second medal when he settled for bronze in the men’s taijiquan-taijijian all-around event at the XSG Sports Centre in Hangzhou.
The 26-year-old Inso finished with a total of 19.486 points—9.746 points in the taijiquan event and 9.470 in the taijijian discipline—behind gold medal winner Gao Haonan of China and Hui Tak Yan of Hong Kong.
Ilonggo wushu bet Arnel Mandal, meanwhile, kept his medal aspirations alive after defeating India’s Sunii Singh Mayanglamban in men’s sanda 56 kg round-of-16 match on Sunday night.
Ilonggo John Bryan Sajonia, John Bismarck Lina, Justine Sanchez and Janrey Pasaol anchored Gilas Pilipinas 3×3 team to a 13-8 victory over Jordan at the start of the men’s 3×3 basketball action.
Ilongga boxer Irish Magno, on the other hand, failed to progress to the next round of the women’s -54-kilogram category after losing to Uzbekistan’s Nigina Uktamova, 5-0, in the round-of-16 on Sunday night.
Ilongga rider Ariana Evangelista, for her part, finished way behind the podium in the women’s cross country olympic category of the Mountain Bike on Monday at the CSC Mountain Bike Course in Hangzhou.
The Iloilo City-native Evangelista ended up at 12th place in the 16-player field as she failed to finish the last two laps of the race. Fellow Filipina Shagne Yaoyao ended at seventh with 1:57.22./PN
