GSF bets dominate PBaRS tourney

MANILA, Philippines - Toby Gadi and Bianca Carlos’ sweep of the Open singles titles in the MVP Sports Foundation-Philippine Badminton Ranking System (PBaRS) capped Golden Shuttle Foundation’s domination of the country’s only ranking badminton tournament recently.

The GSF bets also took the girls’ Under-19 crown, also courtesy of Carlos, and the Open women’s doubles plum behind Gelita Castilo and Dia Nicole Magno while posting a rare sweep of the top three places in the men’s Open singles (Gadi, Patrick Natividad and Justin Natividad) and the girls’ U-19 singles (Carlos, Trixie Malibiran and Samantha Ramos and Sugar Vizmonte).

“This is a proud moment for our team,” said GSF president Nelson Asuncion. “All worked hard to achieve their goals and this has been one of our best results ever. It was such a tough task sweeping the men’s Open and girls’ U-19 singles and we told our players how proud we are of them.”

The GSF team trains at the Asuncion Badminton Center under coaches and former national players Kennevic Asuncion and Kennie Asuncion-Robles.  

“Our players have worked hard all year but especially during summer because this is the only time they don’t have school work. Moreover, they know they are up against full-time players, so the hard work they had this summer paid off. I know this will be an inspiring moment to remind the players that we can always reach for our goals if we set our mind to it,” said Kennie.

Castilo also bagged the silver in the Open singles while Magno and Kristina Tan reached the quarterfinal round and Charlo Tengco and Magno teamed up to cop the bronze in the Open mixed doubles.

“We are very proud of the team and we’ll continue to work hard in pursuit of our dreams while staying humble and grounded,” said Kennevic, who with Kennie, is a  former national team stalwarts.

Others who reached the Last 8 were Clarence Filart (boys’ U-19 singles), Carlos-Malibiran, Ramos-Nicole Nieto and Vizmonte-Nina Zamora (girls’ U-19 doubles), Mika de Guzman-Mhegan Cruz (girls’ U-15 doubles), De Guzman and Cruz (girls’ U-15 singles) and RJ Ongcuangco (boys’ U-15 singles).