7 Filipino athletes to compete in 2022 World Games in Alabama
CARLO BIADO aims for another gold in the 2022 World Games in Alabama this July
LOS ANGELES/MANILA – Expect seven Filipino athletes competing in the United States this July.
The seven athletes have qualified for the 2022 World Games to be held in Birmingham, Alabama.
The World Games is an international multi-sport event held every four years, where sports not contested in the Olympics are played. It is usually staged a year after the Olympic Games.
Leading the Filipino athletes will be 2021 US Open Pool champion Carlo Biado – the first Filipino to win a gold in the competition in 2017. He is expected to secure his second straight World Games stint after bagging the coveted plum last year.
Biado ruled the men’s singles nine-ball event in the 2017 World Games after beating British cue artist Jayson Shaw in the finals.
Also joining the games is two-time women’s world 10-ball champion Rublien Amit, who is considered the world’s no. 4.
The Muay Thai Association of the Philippines said Phillip Delarmino and Leeana Bade will also compete in the 2022 World Games.
Delarmino advanced to the international competition after topping the -57kg male category of the 2021 IFMA World Championships held last December in Phuket, Thailand.
Bade will compete in the 2022 World Games as a wildcard entry in the -63.5 kg female division.
Jiu-Jitsu specialist Annie Ramirez also made it to this year’s World Games as a wildcard qualifier in the women’s -57kg division.
Joyce Reboton is the lone Filipino powerlifter to qualify for this year’s World Games after winning four golds in the 2021 Asian Classic-Equipped Powerlifting and Bench Press Championships held at Istanbul, Turkey.
Karateka Junna Tsukii is the latest addition to the Philippine team in the 2022 World Games after earning a quota slot, the Karate Pilipinas Sports Federation announced as reported by CNN.
Tsukii – the world no. 4 in the women’s kumite -50kg category – is the only Southeast Asian to qualify in the quadrennial sports meet.
“I was not able to participate in the last Olympics, but here I have a chance to give all my efforts and sacrifices,” said Tsukii, who lost in her Olympic bid last year in the qualifiers held in Paris, France.
Since joining the World Games in 1981, the Philippines won a gold, five silvers, and five bronzes.
