
4 minute read
Lady Tams capture UAAP football title
IT took 120 minutes to crown the first UAAP women’s football champion since 2019.
After the dust settled, Far Eastern University outlasted defending champion De La Salle University, 2-1, at extra time to win the Season 85 championship and complete a ‘treble’ for the Tamaraws football program on Sunday at Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
“Never talaga nag give up ang players namin,” said coach Let Dimzon. “Even when we played against La Salle during the first round kahit andami ng score pero humahabol pa rin kami and last game during the second round also.
“‘Yan ‘yung pinaka highlight ko sa team ko—hangga’t hindi natatapos, never sila nag gi-give up. Considering na halos lahat ng players ng La Salle is coming from the youth national team and ‘yung experience ng players ko is not that high pero the way they work inside the field, hindi matatawaran,” she added.
FEU’s Regine Rebosura gave the Lady Tamaraws the lead 46 minutes into the match, only for La Salle’s Shai del Campo to score a late equalizer in the 90+10th minute of regulation.
However, Dimzon’s squad dug deep. The Lady Tamaraws put pressure on the Lady Booters’ goalkeeper Alexandra Gumilao, who made multiple saves. Rebosura then tapped the ball home in the 118th minute to seal the championship.
“Galing siya from futsal and then nag-football,” said Dimzon. “‘Yan na talaga ‘yung malaking reveal from Regine but again siguro sa quality, kaya niya technically. Nakikita mo ‘yung work ethic, kung papano siya nag-a-adjust every training, every game. Kahit maraming mistakes, pero tina-try niya makisabay sa 11-aside.”
This was the Lady Tamaraws’ 11th championship in the UAAP women’s division.
Also winning the boys’ and men’s titles this season, the Lady Tamaraws secured the school’s third treble in history, with the first two coming in Seasons 76-77.
Rebosura was named Rookie of the Year and Best Midfielder for her outstanding performances throughout the season. La Salle’s Angelica Teves was named Best Striker with eight goals. University of the Philippines duo Frances Caroline Acelo and Jennifer Baroin were awarded Best Goalkeeper and Best Defender, respectively.
FEU’s Katrina Magbitang was named the Most Valuable Player for Season 85.
Ateneo de Manila University received the Fair Play Award.
Completing the tournament’s podium is UP, which lost to De La Salle University 1-0 in the playoff on May 13.
ASIA’S best pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena and the Philippine Women’s National Football Team may have treaded different paths in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia.

But their mission and end goal remain the sam— reach the Summit.
AFTER a three-week break following the country’s campaign in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, the Philippine Sportswriters Association resumes its weekly Forum on Tuesday, with no less than Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino gracing as special guest of the special session at the conference hall of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
Tolentino, also mayor of Tagaytay City, is expected to assess the Philippine performance in the Cambodia Games where it finished a fighting fifth or one notch below the 2021 edition in Hanoi, but collected a total of 58 golds for the most the country ever had in SEA Games held overseas since 1987.
The POC president will also talk about the Filipino athletes’ coming bid in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China this September, where some of the events serve as qualifiers to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The session starts early at 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. as Tolentino will be attending to some pressing matters at noontime.
During the session, the PSA also holds the induction of its officers and board members led by newly-elected president Nelson Beltran, sports editor of the Philippine Star.
Tolentino, the current president of the Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines (Philcycling), will administer the induction ceremony.
Obiena’s record-smashing SEAG show is the 5th Irena Sze- winska Memorial at the Zdzislaw Krzyszkowiak Stadium in Bydgoszcz, Poland in June, the Asian Athletics Championships in Pattaya, Thailand in July, the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in September, plus a sprinkling of continental tournaments in Europe in his bid to qualify again for the Olympics next year in Paris.
The world’s no. 3 pole vaulter made a splash in the rain at the Morodok Techno National Stadium, where he obliterated the competition and his own record of 5.46 meters with a leap of 5.65 in the competition delayed for over an hour by the heavy downpour. It was his third straight pole vault gold medal in a domination that began during the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines.
“It feels good. I needed something to make it personal, man. I was done, I wanted to finish, but there was some, not so good development, (that) had to push me. That if stuff gets going, we get tough, right?” said Obiena, whose #thirstforgold was fueled by the judges’ decision of stopping play for everyone during the rain, soon after EJ made his jump in the wet conditions. When the rain stopped, they proceeded, with EJ’s rivals clearly getting better jumping circumstances. The 27-year-old Obiena, with a career best 5.94, said he could have aimed for a higher mark, but was already exhausted from the long wait and the slippery ground and pole.
“Maybe I should have, I could have (gone higher), but it’s early in the season,” added Obiena, obviously preparing for the start of the indoor season.
“The Olympics, that’s the goal,” said Obiena. Filipinas” journey
to summit of FIFA World Cup
The Philippine Women’s National Football Team, also known as the “Filipinas” made history in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in India in 2021 by reaching the semifinals and qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time ever.
It’s an achievement that no Philippine team, men or women, has done before, made the more impressive by the fact that the world’s no. 53-ranked Filipinas made the cut when other Asian countries with a better ranking, like two-time World Cup qualifier (no. 44) Thailand and one-time qualifier (no. 37) Chinese Taipei, couldn’t.
The Filipinas may have failed to finish in the podium in the 2023 SEA Games, but the experience will only make them stronger.