(Asian Games) Miserable Start: Mamiit, Huey avoid rash of Asiad setbacks

GUANGZHOU—Davis Cup heroes Cecil Mamiit and Treat Conrad Huey provided the lone bright note for a Philippine contingent that performed miserably at the start of the 16th Asian Games here Saturday.

The two Fil-Am buddies pulled off straight-set wins that eliminated Kyrgyzstan and boosted the Filipinos into the third round of the men’s team tennis competition at the Aoti Tennis Center. 

Mamiit hacked out a methodical 6-4, 6-4 victory over Daniiar Duldaev after Huey opened the best-of-three tie with a 6-0, 6-1 demolition of Georgii Kotliarevskii.

“We just want to come here, do our best and see where we can go,” Huey told the Inquirer while the now no-bearing doubles match was being played at presstime.

“It helped that they had to play a tie before having to play us,” Mamiit admitted, noting that Kyrgyzstan needed three matches earlier to oust Turkmenistan and advance against the Filipinos.

A medal shutout in dancesports highlighted the dolorous initial campaign by the Filipinos, who also lost Efren (Bata) 

Reyes and Roberto Gomez as solid golden hopes in the 8-ball singles of billiards.

The swimmers also failed to survive their respective heats, the cyclists admitted to being overwhelmed by the opposition, the judokas got felled by higher-rated foes that included an Olympic champion and the lifters  collapsed under the weight of what seemed like an improbable task in the first place.

The setbacks left the country with no medal to show in the first day of competitions, with China lording it over the medal standings after plucking five golds, seven silvers and four bronzes at press time, including the Games’ first gold medal courtesy of Yuan Xiaochao in the men’s changquan in wushu at the Nansha gym.

The country’s national dancers crashed out in the early stages of all standard events as China swept the quickstep, foxtrot, tango and waltz to anchor its five-gold run.

The hosts were threatening to nail a sixth gold in the Latin five dances event where they led the six finalists—again with the Philippines not making it—in the competition ongoing at presstime.

Indian Kumar Alok won the last four racks against  Reyes to quash Filipino pride, 7-3, in a sport that universally considers the Philippines as its epicenter.

Gomez was earlier eliminated by virtually unknown Sumit Talwar of India, 7-5, in the men’s 8-ball singles following losses by the country in the other pool events unfamiliar to them.

Thailand’s Praprut Chaithanasakun, the 2002 Asiad winner in men’s English billiards, ousted Reynaldo Grandea in the last 16, 3-1, while the men’s snooker team of Marlon Manalo and Alvin Barbero dropped a 3-1 decision to Iran’s Soheil Vahedi and Ehsan Nezhad Heydari.

In chess, Wesley So also suffered a shock defeat to Ahmed Minhazuddin of Bangladesh in the first round, while Joey Antonio made up for that, king off his own bid with a victory over Basel Alsoha of Jordan.

Even in its lone bright spot, there was bad news hovering: The Filipinos next face Chinese-Taipei, a squad Mamiit said “is one of the favorites here” in the Asiad.

“But we’ll really just go out there fighting,” said Mamiit, who combined with Huey recently to lift the Philippines past South Korea and remain in Group 1 in the Davis Cup Asian zone.

Cyclists Apryl Eppinger and John Renee Mier flunked their bid for podium finishes at the Guangzhou velodrome.

Eppinger edged India’s Mahita Mohan in the first round of the women’s 500m time trial finals, but eventually finished ninth place, almost four seconds off Hong Kong’s Lee Wai-sze, who set a new Asian record with her 33.945 clocking.

Mier was leading after six rounds in the men’s individual pursuit qualifying round but ended up getting swallowed whole by bigger cyclists and dropped to 19th place.
 
Swimmer Jasmine Alkhaldi clocked 2:07.60 in the women’s 200-meter freestyle heat and finished last, 6.88 seconds behind Japanese Hanae Ito (2:00.72). Later, she also finished eighth in the 100m butterfly with a time of 1:03.61, five seconds behind Yuka Kato of Japan (58.61).

Erica Totten was seventh in a field of eight in her 200m free heat with a time of 2:04.97. China’s Zhu Qianwei ruled that heat with a time of 1:59.83.

Southeast Asian Games judo  gold medalist Ruth Dugaduga lasted only 49 seconds against reigning Olympic champion Yang Xiuli, who won their women’s -78 kg quarterfinal match via ippon. 

Kazakhstan’s Yerzhan Shynkeyev, meanwhile, ousted Tomohiko Hoshina, also in the quarterfinals of their men’s +100 kg contest.

In shooting, Jason Valdez finished 24th in a 48-man field in the men’s 10-meter air rifle qualifying round.

The PH men’s soft tennis team was also fighting for survival at press time, battling Chinese-Taipei in a bid reach the quarterfinals and keep its medal hopes alive.

The squad was whitewashed by Korea, 3-0, but came back to forge a 3-0 beating of Nepal.

“We knew it was going to be tough but we trained hard and hopefully, we can make it all the way to the semifinals,” said Col. Jeff Tamayo, the country’s soft tennis association president.