Bleak Day 4 campaign: Pinoys falter in Asiad

GUANGZHOU —Fourth-day Filipino combatants missed Engelberto “Biboy" Rivera’s cue the night before and failed to advance into medal round positions in the 16th Asian Games here. Rivera’s golden roll in the bowling singles, made sweeter by Frederick Ong’s bronze, did not rub off on top female track cyclist Marites Bitbit, who managed to get only five points in the women’s point race, a world apart from the 34 garnered by winner Liu Xin of China. In a lengtheniing list of uninspired performances, Roque Abala and Alvin Amposta were nearly 11 seconds behind the Japanese duo of Kenta Tadachi and Kenta Kotani in race 2 of the lightweight men’s double of rowing. Soft tennis had a dismal run as Noelle Zoleta lost two matches in women’s singles to her rivals from China and Chinese-Taipei, and so did Joseph Arcilla to his counterparts from Korea and Japan. While PHL's report card for the day had red marks one too many, the brightest note for the Filipinos came the moment wushu’s Mark Eddiva advanced to the medal round of the 65-kilogram division of sanshou, where he is assured of a bronze. Eddiva was fghting China’s Junyon Zhang in the semifinal phase late Tuesday night. Shooting, sailing, judo and rowing had another poor round that negated minor achievements in soft tennis, billiards and swimming, where the 4X100m freestyle team made tonight’s finals with the sixth best time among eight qualifiers. Rivera’s female teammates—Liza del Rosario and Liza Clutario—also could not keep pace as they placed 13th and 24th respectively in batch A of women’s singles, leaving hopes pinned on sisters Mariane Daisy Posadas and Lara Posadas and Kimberly Mae Lao, who are entered in batch B. “It has not been a good day but we are maintaining hopes that we will hit our targets," said Chef de Mission Joey Romasanta, who has been hopping from one venue to another despite the prohibitive distances to closely monitor the RP campaign. Romasanta only had high hopes for taekwondo 8 and 9-ball of billiards, where Dennis Orcullo turned back Mongolia’s Purevsuren Odkhuu, 9-2. Warren Kiamco, Iris Ranola and Rubilen Amit are all live bets for today in 9-ball competitions. The saving grace for the soft netters were Samuel Noguit, who beat Mongolia’s Bayartogtokh Radnaabazar, 4-3, and Cheryl Macasera, who blanked Bulgan Norovsuren also of Mongolia, 4-0, in their first-round encounters. Shooter Alyanna Kystle Chuatoco continued to miss badly, finishing last among 44 in the women’s 25-m pistol qualification, while judo completed its schedule with nothing to crow about. Filipino-Japanese Hoshina Tomohiko bowed to Uzbekistan’s Utkir Kurbanov in the over 100-kg. division and Nancy Quillotes surrendered to Tombi Devi of India in the women’s 48-kg. class, capping a forgettable stint for Filipino judokas, who scored only one win in six divisions. On Monday night, Rey Grandea slightly recovered in carom 3 cushions, beating Thailand’s Thongchai Punyawee, while Iris Ranola clobbered Haifa’a Alanser of Athletes from Kuwait, 7-1, in 9-ball singles to advance closer to the medal play. Other billiards athletes, however, continue to struggle — as Floriza Andal got a good beating from Chinese Taipei’s Chan Ya-Ting, 0-4, in six-red ball snooker; Mary Ann Basas dropped a 3-4 thriller to Korea’s Ram Bo Cha in carom 3 cushion; and Rodolfo Luat lost to Vinh The Ly of Vietnam, 29-40, also in carom. Grandmasters Joey Antonio and Wesley So each collected a point and a half in three matches, sliding back in the race for individual honors in chess. So is in a tie for fourth with 4.5 points behind the leader from Uzbekistan, who has six points, while Antonio is in a logjam for fifth at four points with two rounds left to play today. Filipinos participating in the Chinese chess called qianqi had mixed fortunes. Jackson Hong halved the point with Singaporean Alvin Tsung Han while Sandy Chua lost to Lei Kam Fun of Macau . Swimming scored a minor success in the 4X100 men’s relay as Daniel Coakley, Jessie Khing Lacuna, Miguel Molina and Charles William Walker finished sixth for tonight’s 8-team finals. Walker was however limited to a fifth-place finish among eight in the men’s 100-m backstroke, more than five seconds off the pace set by Japan ’s Junya Koga, while Jasmin Alkhaldi was fifth in her group of 7 in heat 4 in the women’s 50-m freestyle. Ryan Arabejo placed third and Jessie Khing Lacuna sixth in one of the four qualifying runs for the 400-m freestyle. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV