Philippine Asian News Today Vol 19 No 19 | Page 31

October 1 - 15, 2017
SPORTS
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
Squash Makes History at the 29th SEAGames
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
31
By Ruben R. Roque- Manila Correspondent
The 29th SEAGames
held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
last August 19 to 30, 2017
is actually the 6th time that
Malaysia played host to the
SEAGames.
The opening
ceremony was headed by the
King of Malaysia Muhammad
V and the closing ceremony by
Najib Razak, the Prime Minister
of Malaysia at the refurbished
Bukit Jalil National Stadium.
In the medal tally, Malaysia
came in first with a total of 323,
followed by Thailand in second
place with 246 and Vietnam
at third place with a total of
168. The Philippines came in
at 6th place with a total of 121
medals, comprising of 24 gold
medals, 33 Silver medals and
64 bronze medals.
Squash is not a widely
known sport in the Philippines
for lack of exposure and
shortage of squash courts
facilities. These facilities can
be found only in exclusive
sports clubs like the Manila
Polo Club, Makati Sports
Club, Quezon City Sports
Club, Palms Country Club and
the newest at the Shangri-la
Hotel at BGC and the oldest
at Manila Boat Club. Plans
are underway to have a public
squash center built at the Rizal
Memorial Sports Complex to
encourage the youth to take up
the sport and find talents at the
grass root levels by introducing
squash in schools all over the
Philippines.
The very lean Philippine
Squash team of 8 athletes
made a good showing under
the leadership of Squash
President and Assistant Chef
de Mission, Robert Bachmann
and team Manager Vince Abad
Santos with coaches Valentino
Bong and
Claudio “Jun”
Paganpan. For the first time,
the Philippines got a total of 8
medals : 2 silver and