Change of pace for power-spiking mother-to-be Dindin Manabat

Dindin Santiago-Manabat has been playing the active lifestyle for almost half her 22-year life, but with a baby coming her way the 6-foot-2 middle blocker is taking a little break from volleyball.

She played her last volleyball early in December on Game 3 of the Philippine Super Liga Grand Prix finals where her Petron Blaze Spikers lost to her sister Jaja’s Foton Tornadoes and she’s ready to move on from the sport—temporarily at least.

With volleyball, her main source of income, temporarily on hold, Manabat will instead focus on setting up shop as she plans to put up a small restaurant near her alma mater National University.

“Right now I’m not playing, I’ll just make use of this free time and set up a small business,” Manabat said. “It’s a small business, a small restaurant for students.”

She added it’s more of a student-meal place rather a café, a business Petron teammate Aby Maraño put up near De La Salle University.

Breaking the news

Manabat said the Petron locker room was a room full of tears after their devastating loss in the PSL Grand Prix Finals and the looming departure of their imports.

But the mood immediately turned around when she announced that she and her husband were expecting a baby.

“When Erica said her goodbyes, we were crying, plus we lost the title,” Manabat said. “First we were crying because we were sad but the moment I said I was pregnant they cried again but this time it was because of joy.

Manabat said she found out that she was pregnant a week before game 3, but she just told her baby: “I just talked to my baby and said ‘baby, just hold on, palo lang si mommy.”

“Aby worried because I played while I was pregnant, Ate Rachelle (Daquis) were asking why I played.”

Of all her teammates, it was fellow mom Fille Cainglet-Cayetano who the most ecstatic and immediately gave her tips.

“Fille was so happy I’m a mom since she’s also a mommy,” Manabat said. “She advised what to do during the pregnancy, what to do when I feel things, how to eat healthy, stuff like that.”

Source: Bong Lozada of Inquirer.net

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Rio-bound swimmer Ernie Gawilan wins second gold medal in Asean Para Games

THERE is no stopping Ernie Gawilan, the first Pinoy para swimmer to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics.

On Tuesday night, the 23-year old Dabawenyo born with underdeveloped extremities and orphaned at an early age, won the gold medal in the men’s 200-meter individual medley S8 event in another record-shattering performance in the 8th Singapore Para Games.

Gawilan, who also broke the 400-m freestyle event record on the wy to a gold medal on Monday, took off almost 10 seconds from the Games record in the 200-m IM with a clocking of 2:47.64, erasing the old standard of 2:56.41.

Toh Wei Soong of Singapore finished a distant second in 3:05.55 while Dang Van Cong of Vietnam would up third in 3:16.39.

“Maganda ang preparasyon ko, sir. One year na training. Pinaghandaan talaga namin ito,” Gawilan told Spin.ph in an online interview from Singapore.

Gawilan, who has booked a ticket to the 2016 Rio Paralympics by virtue of breaking the Paralympics standard in the 400-m freestyle, brought his medal harvest to two gold and one silver in the 100-meter freestyle event where he lost by a hair to Singaporean rival Toh Wei Soong.

Source: Neil Bravo of Spin.ph

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Azkals drop two notches in FIFA rankings

photo © Interaksyon.com

Following their recent loss to Yemen, the Philippine Azkals dropped from 137 to 139 in the latest FIFA rankings.

The team’s regional rank¬ings in the ASEAN Football Federation also dropped two notches, from No.1 to No.3 in Southeast Asia. Australia and Thailand now occupy the first and second places, respectively.

The Azkals remain No.19 in the whole of Asia.

After playing six matches in the second round of the joint 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers, the Azkals failed to qualify for the next round of eliminations for the world championship following their 0-1 loss to Yemen last November 12.

However, the Philippine national football team still has a chance to enter the third round of qualifiers for the 2019 Asian Cup that will be held in the United Arab Emirates.

“Our goal is still there, which is to play for the Asian Cup. We [still] have time to reflect on what needs to be done,” said team manager Dan Palami.

With just two games left in the tournament on March of next year, the Azkals are occupying the third spot in Group H with two wins, a draw and three losses.

Source: Jaelle Nevin Reyes of The Manila Times

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Spain ends Philippines' hopes, slams door on host country in Spike for Peace

photo © Jerome Ascano

THE country’s final hope in the 2015 Spike for Peace International Beach Volleyball Tournament went down on Tuesday as Philippines-A was eliminated following a 21-14, 21-10 loss to Spain at the Philsports Arena.

The tandem of Amaranta Fernandez and Ester Ribera blasted the Filipina pair of Charo Soriano and Alexa Micek in just 29 minutes to advance to the quarterfinals.

As easy as it looked, Fernandez, who finished with 19 points, including four service aces, said the Filipinas pushed them to their limit.

“No it wasn’t easy, that game we still have to focus, we needed to push until the final,” she said.

Spain finished with an even 1-1 slate in the eliminations for a three-way logjam with Netherlands and Australia B on top of Group A.

Coach Oliver Almadro admitted the Filipinas are still far behind the level of play of their Spanish opponents.

“Ang lalaki nila and masyado pa tayong malayo sa level nila,” he said.

Philippines-A ended its campaign in the tournament winless after losing to Thailand and New Zealand in Group D.

Earlier eliminated was Philippines B, which also finished with a 0-3 slate in Group C as the tandem of Danika Gendrauli ad Norie Jane Diaz fell victim to heavyweight teams Japan, Sweden, and Brazil.

Source: Mei-Lin Lozada of Spin.ph

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8th ASEAN Para Games List of Athletes

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