Angel Polo secured third place in the women’s Taijishan preliminaries in wushu, while Jamesray Mishael Ajido advanced to the men’s 100-meter butterfly final in swimming as Team Philippines continued its campaign for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games on Sunday.
Polo scored 9.223 points despite a couple of errors midway through her routine, briefly taking the lead before settling behind Singapore’s Ng Zhe Nin and Chinese Taipei’s Chu Yu En.
Ng, a former gold medalist at the World Youth Championships, topped the preliminary round with 9.300 points, while Chu matched Polo’s score of 9.223.
The Taijishan preliminaries marked the first of two events in the competition, with the Taijiquan preliminaries scheduled for Monday. The top eight athletes based on their combined scores will advance to Tuesday’s final.
Polo acknowledged that an error in handling her fan affected her balance during the routine.
“I had an error; I didn’t keep my grip on the fan properly, causing me to lose my balance a bit,” said the 15-year-old Polo, who captured a bronze medal at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Tianjin, China, last March.
Meanwhile, Ajido booked a spot in the men’s 100-meter butterfly final after clocking 56.33 seconds to finish seventh among eight qualifiers.
Although the time was 1.32 seconds off his personal best, Ajido did enough to secure a place in the final scheduled for 3 p.m. Senegal time on Sunday.
Egypt’s Ali Sain emerged as the fastest qualifier in 53.96 seconds, followed by Slovakia’s Matias Kristof in 54.68 seconds and India’s Tirthank Pegu in 55.15 seconds.
Ajido was the only Southeast Asian swimmer to advance to the final, with Vietnam’s Van Hoang Quy Duong finishing ninth in 56.78 seconds.
