Polo, Ajido lead PH charge at Dakar Youth Olympics

DIAMNIADIO, Senegal — Angel Polo placed third in the women’s Taijishan wushu preliminaries while swimmer Jamesray Mishael Ajido qualified for the men’s 100-meter butterfly final, giving Team Philippines early opportunities for a strong start at the 4th Youth Olympic Games on Sunday.

Polo scored 9.223 points despite errors with her fan and balance midway through her routine, briefly taking the lead before settling behind Ng Zhe Nin of Singapore and Chu Yu En of Chinese Taipei.

Ng, a former world youth championships gold medalist, topped the field with 9.300 points, while Chu matched Polo’s score.

The Taijiquan preliminaries are set Monday, with the top eight athletes based on combined scores advancing to Tuesday’s final.

“I had an error, I didn’t keep my grip on the fan properly causing me to lose my balance a bit,” said Polo, 15, a bronze medalist at the world junior championships in Tianjin, China, last March.

Ajido clocked 56.33 seconds in the 100m butterfly, 1.32 seconds off his personal best, to secure the seventh and final qualifying spot among eight swimmers for Sunday’s final at 3 p.m. (Senegal time).

Ali Sain of Egypt led the qualifiers in 53.96 seconds, followed by Matias Kristof of Slovakia (54.68) and Tirthank Pegu of India (55.15).

No other Southeast Asian swimmer reached the final, with Van Hoang Quy Duong of Vietnam placing ninth in 56.78 seconds.