Tabuena fails to win gold, jins win 3 bronze

GUANGZHOU, China — Miguel Tabuena fell short in his bid to clinch the men’s individual gold in golf while three taekwondo jins ended a string of near misses by nine of their teammates as the 16th Asian Games entered its first full week of competitions. Tabuena, who turns 16 next month, had a birdie and a bogey in a final-day 72 for a four-day total of 282, a performance worthy of a silver medal behind Whee Meen Kim of Korea (69-273), who easily snatched the gold. Getting only decent back-up from Mhark Fernando (73-298), who landed at 19th in the individual standings, the RP team that also included Carlos Puyat (79-305) and Jerson Balasabas (80-306) could only place fifth (877) behind Korea (842), India (874), Chinese Taipei (875) and Thailand (875). The women’s team finished sixth overall ending up with 601 behind Korea (560), China (571), Taipei (585), and Japan and Thailand (586). Chichiro Ikeda was the best-placed Filipina at 11th with a 296 aggregate, while Imelda Piccio (78-309) landed at 18th and Dottie Ardina (77-311) at 20th out of 30 players. Taekwondo, however, made up for the Filipino athletes’ frustrating campaign on the golf course by putting six fighters in the quarterfinal round. They managed to win three more bronze medals. After a grueling 4-2 win over Vietnam’s Hai Thi Nguyen, pain affected Kirstie Elaine Alora’s performance against the highly-favored Feruza Yergeshova of Kazakhstan in the semis of the under 73kgs class. She lost to Yergeshova, 3-7. Paul Romero eliminated Saudi Arabia’s Amonalad A Hamed Mahmod (12-2), Tan Jun Wei Jason (13-2) and Mongolia’s Bilguun Khosbayar in succession, but his bid to earn a finals berth ended when he suffered a 3-0 loss to Chinese-Taipei’s Yang Chen Wei. After wins over Yemen’s Tameem Al Kubati (6-4) and Kuwait’s Ajaiman Alojaiman (9-4), John Paul Lizardo dropped his semis match against Korean Kim Seong (10-7). “We just could not get the big breaks. Our athletes did everything according to plan," bewailed coach Rocky Samson. The Philippines has already won two gold, two silver and eight bronze medals, way below host China’s 130-60-60 haul, which many officials of the 44 other member countries said was an overkill. Boxer Victorio Saludar advanced to the next round after eliminating Zarip Jumayev of Turkmenistan (12-3) in the 46-49 kgs division to boost the gold medal chances of Team Philippines. Delfin Boholst was shown the exit door after a 1-8 loss to Mongolian Tuvshinbat Byamba. Cecil Mamiit’s bid also ended when he lost to third seed Go Soeda of Japan, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, while Treat Conrad Huey fell, 4-6, 4-6, to Tatsuma Ito also of Japan. Huey and Mamiit were also eliminated in the doubles quarterfinals, losing to Taipei’s H.H. Lee and C.H. Yi, 6-7, 4-6. Bowling also came up dry in the men’s trios where Jose Collins, Benshir Layoso and Raoul Miranda (1,870) and Chester King, Frederick Ong and singles gold medallist Engelberto Rivera (1,853) found themselves nowhere near top team Korea (2,008). RP’s softball Blu-Girls suffered losses to China, 1-7, and Chinese Taipei, 2-9, in a field of six, while Mark Javier and Delfin Adriano placed 31st and 50th in archery. In the individual time trial of road cycling, Marites Bitbit occupied ninth among 13 and counterpart Lloyd Lucien Reynante wound up 16th out of 20 starters in the 35.6 km. race. Chess was also unkind to RP in the second round when the Filipinos lost to China, 1-3, although grandmaster Joey Antonio noted that they can still recover as they had turned back Iran in the opening round by the same score. – JVP/KY, GMANews.TV