PH girls team stamp class, show sportsmanship
The Philippines girls volleyball team overcame an opening-set loss to stun Indonesia, 23-25, 25-13, 25-20, 25-20, in the 11th Asean School Games in Semarang, Indonesia on Saturday, July 20.
According to Philippine Sports Commissioner Charles Raymond Maxey, in a post on social media, the PH spikers shrugged off a wildly-cheering hometown crowd to assure themselves of a podium finish in this year’s edition of the Games for student athletes.
The Dabawenyo Commissioner described the Pinay volleybelles’ triumph as done with sportsmanship in their hearts.
“The girls highlighted their huge triumph with a show of respect to their opponents, going over to the Indonesian bench after match point to give the home team members warm embraces,” Maxey said.
The team then celebrated the victory with Philippine delegation officials and a handful of flag-waving supporters, and offered prayers before leaving the court.
The annual ASEAN School Games (ASG) multisport event opened on Wednesday, July 17, in Semarang, capital of Central Java province, with local media reporting at least 1,600 student athletes from all 10 ASEAN nations taking part.
Running until July 25, this year’s event features badminton, swimming, table tennis, lawn tennis, volleyball, athletics, sepak takraw and pencak silat martial arts.
Speaking in his remarks to address the event, Indonesia’s Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi said Indonesian athletes are capable of achieving the nation’s target of winning the event this year.
“We have to give our utmost, and be confident that we can win this year with respect to the ASEAN student brotherhood,” the minister said.
Indonesia won the 2015 ASG in Brunei, and has secured second position in every ASG since then.
The first ASG took place in 2009 in Thailand. Indonesia currently ranks second in the all-time ASG medal count. (With a report from wires)
