By Adrian Stewart Co

Filipina golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Yuka Saso had contrasting start in the first round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics women’s individual stroke play yesterday at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Tokyo, Japan.

The 23-year-old Pagdanganan bucked the sweltering temperature that reached as high as 37 degrees Celsius, with a heat index of 40 degrees as she opened with a strong 2-under-69.

Pagdanganan started round 1 with back-to-back birdies of the first two holes, before needing a birdie once more in No. 5 to negate the previous hole’s bogey.

Pagdanganan had another bogey in the 11th hole before making it up at the 16th hole with a birdie and, with just inches left to cover, she eventually got the birdie to go back to 2-under.

Filipina-Japanese Saso, the reigning US Women’s Open champion, has unexpectedly struggled in her opening round as she wound up with a 3-over 74.

The 20-year-old Saso actually had a pretty steady opening as she went into the clubhouse with a 1-over 37, but it was the back nine where she struggled.

Back-to-back bogeys of Nos. 16 and 17 had Saso in an unfamiliar territory further down the leaderboard, despite a huge make of the No. 14, which she almost eagled but eventually birdied.

Meanwhile, Ernest John Obiena did not reach a podium finish in the men’s pole vault finals after failing to clear the bar at 5.8 meters thrice on Tuesday night at the Tokyo National Stadium.

Obiena, a standout of University of Santo Tomas athletics team, easily cleared the 5.55 meters but committed two fouls before successfully clearing the 5.70 meters.

Obiena, who has a personal best record of 5.87 meters, fumbled on his three attempts in the 5.80 meters mark to kiss his Olympic medal hopes goodbye.

“You could see that his desire was for him to win,” Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association president Popoy Juico said. “The best is yet to come for EJ and for the Philippine Athletics.”/ASC, WDJ