Pinay badminton team bags bronze

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – The Philippines bowed to Indonesia 0-3 in the semifinals Wednesday and settled for the bronze medal in the women's team event of badminton in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games at the Morodok Techo National Stadium here.

Mikaela Joy De Guzman yielded to Komang Ayu Cahya Dewi, 21-13, 21-5, in the first singles before Airah Mae Nicole Albo and Thea Marie Pomar succumbed to Febriana Kusuma and Amallia Pratiwi, 21-11, 21-12, in doubles play.

Bianca Carlos tried to keep the team's bid alive in the second singles but lost steam in the second set against Ester Wardoyo, 21-19, 21-9.

Carlos said the team is still proud of their achievement despite falling short of making it into the gold-medal round.

"We feel very blessed at this point, to be able to match up with them and play against powerhouse teams that used to crush us before," said Carlos, noting their stunning 3-0 win against Malaysia for a place in the semis.

"Even if we lost 3-0 to Indonesia, we still played the best we could, so it's really an improvement for Team Philippines," she said.

This is the first SEA Games medal for the Philippines since Ronel Estanislao and Joper Escueta bagged the men's doubles bronze in the 2015 games in Singapore.

Action in the men's and women's singles events fires off on Friday, 12 May.