Golfers Bianca Pagdanganan, Dottie Ardina swing into Paris action; John Ceniza opens bid in weightlifting

Three Filipino athletes will look to provide hope to the country anew as golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina, as well as weightlifter John Ceniza, begin their respective campaign in the 2024 Paris Olympics on Wednesday. 

Tokyo Olympian Pagdanganan and debutant Ardina will plunge into action in the first round of women's individual stroke at 3 p.m. at the Le Golf National, while Ceniza will see action in the men's 61lkg at 9 p.m. at the South Paris Arena. 

Pagdanganan is out to replicate her stellar start back in Tokyo, where the 26-year-old golf ace carded 2-under-par 69 to close out round one at joint seventh. However, she slipped in the succeeding rounds to end her campaign at 43rd spot. 

Ardina, meanwhile, is also eyeing for a hot start and to prove her worth after missing out on her support Olympic debut in 2016, where she had to pull the plug on her campaign  due to concerns brought by the Zika virus.

Ardina's tee off is set at 4:44 p.m. while Pagdanganan's is at 5:06 p.m. 

USA's Nelly Korda will begin her gold medal defense bid at 3:55 p.m. while reigning bronze medalist Lydia Ko of New Zealand starts her run at 6:06 p.m. 

Filipino-Japanese Yuka Saso, who now represents Japan after bannering the Philippines three years ago, will tee off at 5:44 p.m. 

Another rookie in Ceniza will aim to make a splash in Paris in a strong field that includes reigning gold medalist Fabin Li of China and last edition's silver medalist Eko Irawan of Indonesia. 

Six of the 12 competitors have entries of at least 300kg, including the Filipino bet with his 300kg. Leading the pack are Li, Irawan, and Sergio Massidda of Italy, all of whom have an entry of 310kg total. 

—JKC, GMA Integrated News