SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga -- Both men's and women's teams in the kata event of the 30th Southeast Asian Games failed to advance from the elimination round in the sport's first day Wednesday at the Laus Group Event Center here in Pampanga.
The Filipino bets fell short of a top-two finish in their respective groups, which only allowed two countries to advance to the finals.
In the men's kata (nage-no-kata) event, Franco Teves and Alvin Mendoza garnered 355.0 points to place third out of four countries in group 2. Indonesia (400.00) and Laos (384.5) moved on to meet Myanmar and Indonesia in group 1.
Helen Dawa and Noemie Candari (366.0) failed to avoid their counterparts' same fate in the women's (ju-no-kata) division after falling behind Thailand (399.0) and Malaysia (386.5) in group 1. Vietnam and Laos advanced from group 2.
Thailand copped twin golds after Pitima Thaweerattanasinp and Supphattra Jaikhumkao (women's) and Sangob Sasipongpan and Pongthep Tumrongluk (men's) dominated both events in the finals.
Laos earned silvers in both categories. Vietnam earned bronze in the women's division, while Myanmar settled for bronze in men's.
The Philippines still has three more days to bounce back from a quiet opening day, with men's (66, 73 and 81-kg) and women's (52, 57 and 63-kg) individual events set to start tomorrow, Dec. 5.