Netters prevent gold medal shutout for RP

The Philippine men’s tennis team prevented a gold medal shutout for the country on Saturday as Cecil Mamiit and Treat Conrad Huey struck hard in the finals of the 25th Laos Southeast Asian Games at the National Sports Complex courts in Vientiane. It was almost a frustrating day for the country and the men’s tennis gold saved the day for the RP team that almost failed to win gold in other events in Day Four of active competitions. The near gold medal shutout dropped the country to seventh behind host Laos.

But that was only for a brief moment as Mamiit and Huey made sure that the country would keep its spot at sixth place and hopefully climb a notch higher especially with medal-rich athletics opening up competitions on Sunday. Mamiit and Huey scored a hard-earned victory against Thailand in the team final. The Filipino pair fought back from a set down to defeat Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), in the deciding doubles match. Earlier, Huey defeated W. Kittiphong, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (2), in the first singles match but Mamiit lost to Danai Udomchoke, 6-4, 6-2, the same player that he defeated two years ago in Korat. The Philippines reclaimed sixth place from host Laos with eight gold, 14 silvers and 15 bronze medals. The hosts overtook the Philippines early Saturday when it reached eight gold medals along with four silvers and 16 bronzes. It was a frustrating day for the Philippine swimming team as only Ryan Arabejo and the 4x100m freestyle team took home silver medals. Ryan Arabejo set a new SEA Games mark in the 400-m freestyle with a time of 3:56.08, but the effort still fell short as gold medalist Daniel Bego of Malaysia had an even better clocking of 3:53.99. The previous record stood at 3:57.34 owned by Torlap Sethasothan of Thailand during the 1995 meet in Chiang Mai. It was the second silver medal for Arabejo after a similar runner up finish in the 200m backstroke Thursday. The 4x100m freestyle squad finished second with a time of 3:24:35 but Singapore was better winning the gold with a time of 3:23:22, another SEA Games mark. Charles Walker (100m butterfly), Jasmine Alkhaldi (100m butterfly), Marichi Gadionco (100m backstroke) and Dorothy Hong (100m backstroke) made it to the finals but failed for a podium finish. After collecting gold medals the past three days, taekwondo finally faltered as the Lizardo siblings – Jayra and John Paul – came up short in their respective events, typifying the Filipinos’ struggle. John Paul made it as far as the gold medal round of the finweight division, but run smack against a tough Thai opponent in Jerranat Nakaviroj, winner of the gold in the 2008 Asian Taekwondo Championship, 3-8. Jayra, 17, a World Junior Taekwondo Championship bronze medalist, fell in her semifinal match against Worawong Pongpanit also of Thailand. In all, the Filipino jins finished with four gold, four silvers and four bronze medals as action ended Saturday. The figures improved the 1-4-7 medal tally taekwondo turned in during the 2007 SEA Games. Diver Nino Carog provided the day’s other silver medal in the male 3m springboard as he scored 429 points to finish second behind Malaysian Ken Nee Yeoh (450.45). Teammate Zandro Domenios (377) was a far fifth. Vietnam remains on top of the medal tally with 20-17-19 followed by Thailand (18-24-29). Singapore is in third with 18-8-16 while Malaysia tallied fourth with 15-16-24. Indonesia took fifth with 13-13-20. Myanmar follows Laos with 4-6-16 as Cambodia has 2-4-5. Brunei has four bronzes while Timor Leste has two bronzes. Aside from Jyra Lizardo, also salvaging bronze medals were karatedo’s Ace Eso in the 55kg kumite and and kumite team of Eso, Michael Dumayag, Noel Espinosa, Rolando Lagman, Junel Perana, Irineo Toribio and Joel Gonzaga in team kumite. The women’s tennis team of Denise Dy and Riza Zalameda likewise bagged a bronze, so did flyweight Preciosa Ocaya, light-fly Maricel Subang, pinweight May Libao and welter Harold Gregorio in muay. Matches in karatedo were also completed Saturday, where the Filipinos won a lone gold courtesy of Marla Pabilore (kumite 55 kg). The karatekas added two silver and three bronzes to their campaign. Other results had thewomen’s boxing team sending three of its bets in the semifinals as Josie Gabuco (finweight), Alice Kate Aparri (light-flyweight) and flag-bearer Annie Albania hurdled their first round opponents, respectively. In golf, Jhonnel Ababa carded a 69, Jude Eustaquio a 70 and Mark Fernando a 75 for a 214. But they still slid to fourth-running spot, 11 strokes behind leader Thailand. Tonton Asistio’s 76 did not count in the 72-hole four-to-play, three-to-count format. Also at the SEA Games Golf Club, Chihiro Ikeda carded a 71 and Mae Piccio a 75 as the women’s golf team faced a four-stroke deficit against Thailand after the first round.Dottie Ardina’s 78 did not count in the three-to-play, two-to-count format of the 54-hole event. The RP beach volleyballers’ chances of advancing from eliminations play dimmed when Rhovyl Verayo and Jonrey Sasing absorbed a 0-2 loss to Laos while Johanna Carpio and Michelle Carolino got beaten by Indonesia via the same count. – GMANews.TV