Team Philippines sends 136 athletes to Asian Youth Games

Team Philippines will send a 136-strong delegation to compete in 16 of the 23 sports featured at the 3rd Asian Youth Games, set from October 22 to 31 in Manama, Bahrain.

Boxing prospect Leo Mhar Lobrido and rising volleyball talent Harlyn Serneche will carry the national flag during the parade of nations at the opening ceremony in Exhibition World Bahrain, the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) confirmed.

“We’ll field a compact team of promising athletes who could become our future Olympic, world, and regional champions,” said POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino. The Philippines aims to match or surpass its 2013 Nanjing Youth Games tally of two golds and three silvers.

The contingent, composed of athletes aged 14 to 17, will see action in volleyball, teqball, golf, triathlon, MMA, taekwondo, Muay Thai, athletics, boxing, cycling, weightlifting, table tennis, badminton, wrestling, aquatics, and jiu-jitsu.

Lobrido, who turns 16 in October, bagged gold in the boys’ 46–48 kg division at the Greater Bay Area Youth Boxing Challenge in China last year. Serneche, meanwhile, stars for Nazareth School of National University’s girls’ volleyball squad.

Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) and AVC president Ramon “Tats” Suzara has been appointed as chef de mission. The Bahrain games are expected to draw 4,000 athletes from 45 nations across 223 events.