A yearend evaluate of the busy Philippine Sports activities in 2023. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.internet
MANILA, Philippines — It was certainly a busy 2023 for Philippine sports activities and it’ll go down as one of the memorable years within the historical past books.
Three years after the pandemic, the Asian Video games and Southeast Asian Video games have been held in a single yr. The Filipino athletes additionally competed in world tilts together with the Filipinas’ maiden Fifa World Cup marketing campaign and the nation’s historic internet hosting of the Fiba World Cup Basketball 2023.
Let’s have a look again on the hectic but banner yr for Philippine sports activities earlier than the brand new yr.
Philippines impresses at Hanoi SEA Video games 2023
The Philippines amassed 58 gold medals within the 2023 Cambodia SEA Video games.
Seeing motion in two SEA Video games in a row didn’t cease the Philippine group from getting 58 gold medals — the Filipinos’ greatest haul as a non-country host— in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to surpass the 52 golds it acquired in Vietnam the yr prior.
The Philippines additionally completed with 85 silver medals and 117 within the thirty second version. Nevertheless, the nation slid from fourth in Vietnam to fifth place this yr regardless of having six extra gold medals than the thirty first SEA Video games.
Arnis and Taekwondo earned probably the most medals for the Philippines with six every, whereas World No.2 pole vaulted EJ Obiena claimed his third straight SEA Video games gold and set a brand new biennial meet file with 5.65 meters, surpassing his earlier 5.46m in Vietnam.
Wushu artist Agatha Wong received her fifth SEA Video games gold after ruling the ladies’s taijiquan + taijijian occasion. Olympic gymnast Caloy Yulo earned his third straight gold within the males’s particular person all-around occasion, whereas weightlifter Vanessa Sarno was capable of defend her title as she broke her file by lifting 105 kilograms within the snatch.
After a disappointing runner-up end in Vietnam final yr, Gilas Pilipinas reclaimed its crown after Justin Brownlee led the Chot Reyes-coached group to an 80-69 gold-medal-clinching win over host nation Cambodia.
Filipinas places on historic marketing campaign within the Fifa Girls’s World Cup 2023
The Philippine girls’s soccer group places on a historic marketing campaign within the Fifa Girls’s World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
The Philippine girls’s soccer group made its historic Fifa World Cup debut final July, which ended up with a first-round exit after shedding to Norway, 6-0. Nonetheless, it was a match to recollect for the Filipinas, who skilled plenty of firsts.
The debuting Filipinas fell to Switzerland in its first-ever Girls’s World Cup sport, 2-0, earlier than 13,000 followers at t Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.
However it didn’t cease the nationals from residing their dream because the nation earned its maiden win on the world stage with Sarina Bolden’s header within the twenty fourth minute of the match and Olivia McDaniel’s massive saves within the second half took down host co-host New Zealand, 1-0, in entrance of 32,000 followers at Wellington Regional Stadium.
It was a World Cup to recollect for the crew bannered by Bolden, McDaniel, Hali Lengthy, Katrina Guillou, Sara Eggesvik, Quinley Quezada, Jaclyn Sawicki, Alicia Barker, Lengthy, Jessika Cowart, Sofia Harrison and Angie Beard.
Nevertheless, coach Alen Stajcic stepped down from his put up after main the Filipinas to a historic World Cup look with Mark Torcaso taking on within the Hangzhou Asian Video games and Olympic Qualifying Event.
The Philippines reached the quarterfinal of the Asiad in October and bombed out of Olympic competition within the second spherical of qualifiers in November.
The Filipinas nonetheless ended the yr on a excessive be aware by reaching its finest rating in Fifa, climbing to No.38.
Philippines hosts the Fiba World Cup 2023; Gilas has lone win
As an enormous basketball country-nation, the Philippines acquired its likelihood to host the Fiba World Cup 2023 from August 25 to September 10 and didn’t disappoint when Manila witnessed right now’s basketball stars compete on the highest degree.
The Filipinos kicked off the three-host-nation occasion — together with Japan and Indonesia — by setting a brand new Fiba World Cup attendance file as 38,115 followers went to the Philippine Area in Bocaue, Bulacan to erase a 29-year-old file just for Gilas to fall quick to the Karl-Anthony Cities-led Dominican Republic.
The Philippines surpassed the earlier file of 32,616 followers throughout Group USA’s gold medal-clinching win over Russia within the 1994 World Cup ultimate in Toronto, Canada.
However within the nation’s second internet hosting of the world basketball tilt, Gilas, led by NBA star Jordan Clarkson had a disappointing end and ended up winless within the first spherical after shedding to Angola and Italy.
The nationwide group continued to wrestle because it did not grow to be the perfect Asian group and e book an outright ticket to Paris 2024 after an 87-68 loss to South Sudan, which had an ideal World Cup debut with an Olympic berth.
However Clarkson saved the perfect for final as he exploded for 34 factors to ship Gilas’ lone win, 96-75 over Asian rival China, which led the Philippines to complete twenty fourth within the World Cup for a spot within the Olympic Qualifying Event.
Nevertheless, Chot Reyes resigned after his second win within the World Cup, believing the longer term is shiny for Gilas with AJ Edu, Kai Sotto, Dwight Ramos, and Rhenz Abando.
Greater than Gilas stint, Fiba was grateful for the Philippines internet hosting, the place NBA stars like Luka Doncic of Slovenia, Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Germany’s Dennis Schroder joined Group USA’s Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Anthony Edwards, and fan favourite Austin Reaves and Serbia’s Bogdan Bogdanovic.
Schroder and Germany dominated the World Cup after beating the Bogdanovic-led Serbia within the ultimate, whereas Canada survived Group USA in extra time to seize the bronze.
Jiujitsu girls fighters lead PH gold haul in Asian Video games; Gilas guidelines
The Philippine nationwide group had a four-medal haul within the 2023 Asian Video games with pole vault star EJ Obiena and jiujitsu girls’s stars Meggie Ochoa and Annie Ramirez main the way in which.
The Philippines earned 4 gold medals within the nineteenth Asian Video games in Hangzhou, China with Obiena, Jiujitsu girls’s stars Meggie Ochoa and Annie Ramirez, and the embattled Gilas ruling their respective sports activities.
The Filipinos matched its earlier gold medal haul within the 2018 version in Jakarta, Indonesia and earned two silver medals from Olympic-bound boxer Eumir Marcial and wushu artist Arnel Mandal and 12 bronze medals to rise from nineteenth place to seventeenth this yr in China.
Obiena delivered the nation’s first gold medal on this yr’s Asian Video games after setting a brand new file within the continental meet, clearing 5.90 meters.
Jiu-jitsu was the highest performing sport for the Philippines within the quadrennial meet as Ochoa dominated the ladies’s 48kg, whereas Ramirez topped the ladies’s -57kg.
Gilas, which didn’t get the dedication of its World Cup core and had a brief preparation beneath coach Tim Cone and the administration of San Miguel Company, made a tremendous run ruling the boys’s 5-on-5 competitors for the primary time since 1962.
Led by Brownlee and a few PBA stars, the Filipinos overcame adversity till it reached the ultimate, the place they took down the Rondae Hollis-Jefferson-led Jordan, 70-60.
Nevertheless, the gold medal was marred with controversy after Brownlee examined optimistic for a banned substance.
Since he failed his doping take a look at, Brownlee’s case has but to have any developments as Ginebra tapped new import Tony Bishop for the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
All roads result in Paris 2024 for Filipino athletes
As of the yearend, the Philippines has 4 certified athletes for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
After a busy yr, all eyes are on the Filipinos competing within the 2024 Paris Olympics subsequent yr with 4 athletes already certified to compete within the grandest stage.
EJ Obiena, Carlos Yulo, and Eumir Marcial are making their return to the Olympics, whereas Aleah Finnegan might be making her debut after changing into the primary Filipina gymnast to qualify within the Summer time Video games since 1964.
Yulo booked his second journey to the Olympics after an underwhelming end within the 2020 Tokyo Video games. He emerged because the highest-ranked in males’s flooring train of the 2023 Inventive Gymnastics World Championships in Belgium.
Finnegan earned her ticket to Paris within the 2023 World Inventive Gymnastics Championship girls’s all-around to grow to be the primary Filipina gymnast after Maria Luisa Floro and Evelyn Magluyan.
Obiena continued to succeed in higher heights this yr as he cleared six meters twice this yr to set his new private finest on high of two gold medals within the SEA Video games and Asian Video games and a historic silver medal within the World Athletics Championships pole vault occasion in Budapest, Hungary final August.
Marcial certified via his silver medal within the Asian Video games middleweight division. He made his debut in Tokyo and received bronze.
Naranjo, who delivered the primary Olympic gold of the nation in Tokyo, is trying to make her fifth look within the Summer time Video games, which is also her final elevate.
The weightlifting queen has moved up in weight from the ladies’s 55kg occasion to the 59kg class.
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She positioned seventh within the World Championship and fourth in each Asian Video games and Asian Championships however her primary focus is delivering one other Olympic gold for the Philippines.