AIG: Molina settles for silver, Lagilag adds bronze
11/05/2009 | 08:42 PM
HANOI – Swimming and sanshou added a silver and bronze in the country’s medal haul with two more days left in the 3rd Asian Indoor Games.
Miguel Molina settled for the silver in his pet 200m Individual Medley while sanshou artist Jennifer Lagilag took the bronze in the women’s 48 kilogram division as Team Philippines hiked its medal haul to a gold, two silver and four bronze to surpass the country’s 1-2-3 collection two years ago in Macau.
Molina, the 25-year-old swimmer who was named the 2007 Thailand SEA Games best male athlete, struggled in the first 50 meters of the race to finish second behind Kazakhstan’s Dimitriy Gordiyenko.
He was at sixth among eight finalists after 50 meters. Although he managed to increase his pace in the last 150m, Gordiyenko had already built a good lead that Molina could not overtake.
The 5-foot-11 Gordiyenko, who qualified in the finals after submitting the best time of 2:00.51, improved his record to 1:57.50 to bag the gold.
Molina, who had the third best time of 2:03.26 in the qualifying heats, was 2.39 ticks behind at 1:59.89 with Chinese-Taipei’s Hsu Chi-chieh earning the bronze (2:00.88).
Gordiyenko, 23, won his second AIG gold after topping the same event in 2005 but settled for the silver in 2007.
Molina failed to add another medal when he did not qualify in the men’s 50m breaststroke finals on Thursday. He clocked in at 29.74 seconds to place fourth in his heat but finished 12th overall out of 22 swimmers.
“The goal here is for Miguel to test himself for the Laos SEA Games. If he wins a medal, its really a bonus because with the short time between the AIG and the SEA Games, it would be impossible for him to peak twice," said national coach Pinky Brosas.
Molina returns Friday in the men's 200m freestyle qualifying heats before winding up his campaign Saturday in the 100m individual medley and 100m freestyle.
In sanshou over at the Trinh Hoai Duc Gymnasium, Lagilag once again failed to defeat a taller and skillful Nguyen Thi Bich of host Vietnam in the semifinals of the 48kg division.
It was the third time that Lagilag and Thi Bich faced each other in a tournament with the Vietnamese winning all three matches. The first two meetings took place in 2007 during the World Wushu Championships in Beijing and the Thailand SEA Games.
Thi Bich immediately went to work against the 27-year-old Lagilag as the Vietnamese champion bloodied the Benguet native’s nose in the first round. Lagilag tried to counter in the second where she managed to push her opponent outside the ring.
But Thi Bich connected with two round house kicks to the body to secure a seat in the finals.
Rhea May Rifani tries to win for the Philippines its second gold when she faces Gong Jinlan of China in Friday’s finals of the 52kg sanshou event.
Rifani scored a 2-1 win over Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Ngan in Wednesday’s semis to set up a gold medal showdown with Jinlan, who is a 2-0 winner against Thuy Ngan.
“This is the first time that we will meet each other but I have seen her when I was part of the sanshou team that trained in China in 2007," said Rifani, a graduating student at the University of Cordillera.
“We're proud on the performance of Jennifer. As for Rhea, we expect a tough fight but we know she will be their fighting and giving her best to win the gold medal," said RP Chief of Mission and wushu secretary-general Julian Camacho. – GMANews.TV
Miguel Molina settled for the silver in his pet 200m Individual Medley while sanshou artist Jennifer Lagilag took the bronze in the women’s 48 kilogram division as Team Philippines hiked its medal haul to a gold, two silver and four bronze to surpass the country’s 1-2-3 collection two years ago in Macau.
Molina, the 25-year-old swimmer who was named the 2007 Thailand SEA Games best male athlete, struggled in the first 50 meters of the race to finish second behind Kazakhstan’s Dimitriy Gordiyenko.
He was at sixth among eight finalists after 50 meters. Although he managed to increase his pace in the last 150m, Gordiyenko had already built a good lead that Molina could not overtake.
The 5-foot-11 Gordiyenko, who qualified in the finals after submitting the best time of 2:00.51, improved his record to 1:57.50 to bag the gold.
Molina, who had the third best time of 2:03.26 in the qualifying heats, was 2.39 ticks behind at 1:59.89 with Chinese-Taipei’s Hsu Chi-chieh earning the bronze (2:00.88).
Gordiyenko, 23, won his second AIG gold after topping the same event in 2005 but settled for the silver in 2007.
Molina failed to add another medal when he did not qualify in the men’s 50m breaststroke finals on Thursday. He clocked in at 29.74 seconds to place fourth in his heat but finished 12th overall out of 22 swimmers.
“The goal here is for Miguel to test himself for the Laos SEA Games. If he wins a medal, its really a bonus because with the short time between the AIG and the SEA Games, it would be impossible for him to peak twice," said national coach Pinky Brosas.
Molina returns Friday in the men's 200m freestyle qualifying heats before winding up his campaign Saturday in the 100m individual medley and 100m freestyle.
In sanshou over at the Trinh Hoai Duc Gymnasium, Lagilag once again failed to defeat a taller and skillful Nguyen Thi Bich of host Vietnam in the semifinals of the 48kg division.
It was the third time that Lagilag and Thi Bich faced each other in a tournament with the Vietnamese winning all three matches. The first two meetings took place in 2007 during the World Wushu Championships in Beijing and the Thailand SEA Games.
Thi Bich immediately went to work against the 27-year-old Lagilag as the Vietnamese champion bloodied the Benguet native’s nose in the first round. Lagilag tried to counter in the second where she managed to push her opponent outside the ring.
But Thi Bich connected with two round house kicks to the body to secure a seat in the finals.
Rhea May Rifani tries to win for the Philippines its second gold when she faces Gong Jinlan of China in Friday’s finals of the 52kg sanshou event.
Rifani scored a 2-1 win over Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Ngan in Wednesday’s semis to set up a gold medal showdown with Jinlan, who is a 2-0 winner against Thuy Ngan.
“This is the first time that we will meet each other but I have seen her when I was part of the sanshou team that trained in China in 2007," said Rifani, a graduating student at the University of Cordillera.
“We're proud on the performance of Jennifer. As for Rhea, we expect a tough fight but we know she will be their fighting and giving her best to win the gold medal," said RP Chief of Mission and wushu secretary-general Julian Camacho. – GMANews.TV
