Pictured: Philip Joper Escueta/Paul John Pantig. Photo credit: Luis Veniegra Photography
Ten members of the Filipino national team are putting their skills to the test in Australia, competing at the recent South Australia International and this week’s Sydney International.
The team has spent the last two months at an intensive training camp in Indonesia and the results are starting to show in Australia.
Team coaches and ex-national players, Ronald Magnaye and Arolas Amahit are accompanying the team this week in Sydney, impressed with what they are seeing from the coach’s chairs.
“They’ve been playing really well. The standard is high enough to give them some great international experience, with an ability to win plenty of games too”
“We played in this tournament last year and we knew we wanted to come back. It breaks up the training as we will return to Indonesia after this for another month of training before the South East Asian Games”, says Arolas.
One of the most memorable wins so far came from Paul John Pantig, one half of the pair that ousted the first seed and world number 34 pairing, Philip and Ryan Chew from the South Australia International last week.
Despite claiming that the “colder temperatures are slowing down the shuttlecock in Australia”, Pantig and Escueta have shown no signs of slowing down as they continued to cause upsets when they defeated the eighth seeds in front of a home crowd in Sydney.
- Philip Joper Escueta/Paul John Pantig (PHI) vs Lukas Defolky/Raymond Tam (AUS)[8] 21-18 18-21 21-16
The Badminton Philippines Doubles pairs enjoyed some epic matches this afternoon ⬇️Escueta and Pantig produced the same form that saw them overcome the first seeds last week, to defeat the eighth seeds today 🏸 Philip Joper Escueta/Paul John Pantig (PHI) vs Lukas Defolky/Raymond Tam (AUS)[8] 21-18 18-21 21-16 Joyce Choong/Sylvina Kurniawan (AUS) vs Alyssa Yasbel Leonardo/Thea Marie Pomar (PHI) 21-17 13-21 21-18
Posted by Badminton Oceania on Thursday, September 19, 2019
Several other players in the team are also stepping up to the plate too, including two Mixed partnerships who ousted some of the top seeds in yesterday’s first round:
- Peter Gabriel Magnaye/Thea Marie Pomar (PHI) vs Michael Soon How Lim/Victoria He (AUS)[6] 21-13 21-13
- Alvin Morada/Alyssa Yasbel Leonardo (PHI) vs Mitchell Wheller/Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen (AUS)[2] 21-12 21-15
Tournament favourites are out of the Mixed Doubles as players from Badminton Philippines 🇵🇭 and Badminton Australia ousted the top two seeds ⬇️ Tran Hoang Pham/Sylvina Kurniawan (AUS) vs Jonathan Curtin/Erena Calder-Hawkins (NZL)[1] 21-16 21-13 Alvin Morada/Alyssa Yasbel Leonardo (PHI) vs Mitchell Wheller/Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen (AUS)[2] 21-12 21-15 🏸 #SydneyInternational19
Posted by Badminton Oceania on Thursday, September 19, 2019
The Filipino team have enjoyed plenty of support this week, as ex-members of the national team who now live in Sydney were joined by a handful of other Filipino club players from the local area.
One of the supporters and ex-national team players, Kathy, is “excited to see the team’s progress” ahead of the South East Asian Games in December.
The Games will take place from Saturday 30 November – Wednesday 11 December and are known for including badminton giants from Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam in the past.
Follow the results from the Sydney International 2019 on Tournament Software.
