Women’s water polo assured of bronze

CAPAS, Tarlac, Philippines—The Philippine women’s water polo team is assured of a bronze medal even if it loses all its remaining games.

This came after the Southeast Asian Games Federation Council approved a new rule for the 30th edition awarding a bronze medal even if there are only three participants entered in an event.

“The current rule is, if for instance in boxing, only three countries are entered in a certain weight category, only a gold and a silver medal are to be awarded and the third placer gets nothing,” said SEAGF Executive Committee chair Celso Dayrit during yesterday’s meeting at the New Clark City here.

“This games are all about the athletes, so why penalize an athlete who sacrifices, trains and participates, places third and is deprived of a medal because other countries withdrew at the last minute? That’s not his or her fault,” Philippine Olympic Committee and SEAGF president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, for his part, said.

This means the country is assured of a bronze even if it ends up losing all its four outings.

The Nationals dropped their first two outings to defending champion Singapore, 9-18, Wednesday and Thailand, 5-32, the next day.

The host country will play Thailand tomorrow.