IN this continuation of “How they qualified for Paris,” The Manila Times explains how golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina made it to the Paris Olympics.
This is the second of the seven-part series, which opened with Filipino athletes who are the lone representatives of their respective national teams — rower Joanie Delgaco, fencer Samantha Catantan and judoka Kiyomi Watanabe.
Pagdanganan and Ardina made the grade by staying in the top 60 of the women’s Olympic rankings at the end of the qualification period on June 24.
Pagdanganan, 26, placed 36th to make her second straight Olympic qualification, while Ardina, 30, finished 56th to make her Olympic debut in France.
It would have been Ardina’s second Olympic qualification had she competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Ardina qualified for the Rio Games but did not compete due to the Zika virus threat.
Ladies Professional Golf Association campaigners Pagdanganan is 119th, and Ardina is 299th in the world rankings as of July 8.
Yuka Saso, who represented the Philippines at the Tokyo Olympics but has been flying the Japanese flag since 2022, also qualified for the Paris Games.
The two-time US Open Women’s champion is 10th in both the Olympic and world rankings.
At the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, Saso won a gold medal with Pagdanganan and Lois Kaye Go in the women’s team event.
The 23-year-old also won a gold medal in the individual event.
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