FILIPINO athletes were blown away by the opposition in the Birmingham World Games with reigning US Open champion Carlo Biado failing to repeat as 9-ball champion and his compatriots experiencing misfortunes one after the other.
A gold medalist in the Wroclaw 2017 games, Biado succumbed to an 8-11 decision to Germany’s Joshua Filler in the semifinal on Sunday morning and suffered another heartbreaking 8-11 beating at the hands of Singaporean Aloysius Yapp in the bronze medal match later on.
Rubilen Amit, a double medalist at the Vietnam 31st Southeast Asian Games last May—was first to fall on Sunday after bowing to Germany’s Veronika Ivanovskaia, 8-9, in the quarterfinals of women’s 9-ball.
Philip Delarmino, also a gold medalist in Vietnam, crashed out in the the quarterfinals after losing to Ukraine’s Vladyslav Mykytas, 28-30, in men’s -57 kgs of muaythai. Leeana Bade also absorbed a 28-29 decision to Janejira Wankrue in the quarterfinal phase of women’s -63.5 kgs.
Annie Ramirez, another gold medal winner in Vietnam, lost to France’s Laurence Fouillat, 0-14, in the bronze medal match of women’s 57 kgs Ne-Waza of jiu-jutsu. Ramirez was relegated to the bronze medal match after losing to Galina Duvanova of Kazakhstan in the semifinals, 2-2, on Sunday morning.
In duathlon, Fernando Casares settled for 14th place among 30 participants in the men’s individual event at the Railroad Park early on Sunday. Frane’s Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger won the event, followed by another Frenchman Benjamin Choquert and Italian Victor Zambrano.
Misfortune struck Kim Mangrobang as she was disqualified along with several others for making a wrong turn in the bike section of women’s individual duathlon. She said the route was poorly marked and there were hardly any directional sign.
The 10-athlete Philippine delegation is left with the duathlon relay for a possible medal that would add to Junna Tsukii’s gold in women’s 50 kgs of kumite in karate.