Women’s sprint squad captures ABG silver

SANYA, China — Team Philippines continued making waves in the sands as the women’s sprint team bagged a silver medal in beach athletics while the Alas Pilipinas beach volleyball squads both reached the quarterfinals with the country keeping its hold on third place overall Sunday in the 6th Asian Beach Games (ABG).

Jessica Rose Laurance added a silver medal to her bronze won Saturday by teaming up with Shane Joy Ponce, Lianne Diana Pama, and Olympian Kristina Marie Knott as the quartet finished second in the 4x60 meter relay at Phoenix Island.

At press time Sunday, the official medal tally showed the Philippines in third place with three gold, two silver, and two bronze medals behind second-running Thailand with a 4-5-3 haul and host China which leads the pack with 13 gold, 11 silver and four bronze medals.

The Filipinos’ campaign in this resort city is supported by the Philippine Olympic Committee under its president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino and the Philippine Sports Commission helmed by chairman Patrick “Pato” Gregorio.

“It’s so different. There’s no baton. The exchange zone is three meters versus 30 meters. So, I think that was our only enemy in the race was the zone,” Knott said.

It was another taste of sweet victory for Laurance.

“It feels great. Honestly, I came here not knowing what to expect. I really just wanted to have fun and see what I could do on sand,” Laurance said.

“I’ve never run on sand and I really beat my expectations. So, I’m really happy.”

Over at the Tianya Haijiao Venue Cluster, Sunny Villapando and Grydelle Matibag clobbered Sri Lanka’s Shehani Ashanga Wattelage and Ktl Alawaththage, 21-15, 21-13 in their Round of 16 tiff.

“First of all, the start was a little bit shaky, even towards the end. But I think what persists is the willingness for us to win this game and also to do good movements,” Matibag said. “It was just a bonus because we were focusing on our good movements and how we can improve game by game.”

“I think everything starts with a pass, right? So, our ball control, our good pass set is really what I was focused on in the front half of that set because when we pass in front and we set in front, we have good vision and we can put the ball wherever we want,” Villapando added.

The Villapando-Matibag pair will take on Japan’s Matsumoto Ren and Matsumoto Non Monday in the Last Eight at the same venue where Khylem Progella and Sofiah Pagara will face Thailand in another QF clash.

Progella and Pagara downed the Kazakhstan duo of Yekaterina Ryukhova and Kristina Karimova, 21-11, 21-14, also in the Last 16.

The Philippine dragon boat team closed out the competition in fifth place in the men’s 800 meter race at the Sanya River.