GUANGZHOU—As the losses piled up and forced the Philippine delegation to look forward to the coming competitions in these 16th Asian Games, a couple from a dark horse team came out to give the country something to cheer about Sunday.
Charlea Lagaras and Ronnie Vergara—real-life sweethearts competing in a sport that thrives on romance, real or makeshift—bagged two bronze medals in dancesport at the Zengcheng City gymnasium here.
“This is big because it is the first time dancesport was included in the Asian Games and we gave the Philippines a medal right away,” said Vergara, who teamed up with Lagaras to win the Latin cha-cha-cha and paso doble bronzes in an event dominated by host China.
The Chinese dominated the second day of dancesport, sweeping the 10 golds at stake in the first-time Asiad event, to hike its golden haul to 34 at press time.
The Philippines, competing with modest goals, finally made it to the medal tally with the two bronze medals.
“There are no words I can say right now but I’m just really, really happy,” Lagaras said.
Reeling from setbacks
The third place finish was a salve of sorts for a delegation reeling from setbacks since Saturday.
The third place finish was a salve of sorts for a delegation reeling from setbacks since Saturday.
The beating continued Sunday, with a hard-fighting tennis team getting the boot from top seed Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals, the swimmers getting knocked off their events in the heats and the shooters failing to climb up the standings.
After Yang Tsung-hua tripped Treat Conrad Huey, 7-6 (5), 7-5, and Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun bounced out Cecil Mamiit, 6-2, 7-6 (3), the country’s top netter began looking forward to doubles competition where the country is expected to fare better.
The country’s billiards team also faltered in the face of up-and-coming opposition. Late Saturday night, top cue artists Roberto Gomez and Efren “Bata” Reyes were booted out of the 8-ball singles by relatively unknown Indians.
Gomez’s loss to Sumit Talwar was more painful. Both were tied at 5 in the race-to-7 affair when Talwar fouled. Gomez cleaned up to reach the hill but failed to call his shot, putting the Indian back on the table en route to the hill and a run out in the last rack.
Valuable experience
Shooter Mark Manosca finished 45th in a field of 52 in the men’s 10m air pistol qualifying round after a 551 total while Alyanna Chuatoco completed a 364 and wound up 44th in the women’s field.
The good news is Manosca, 18, and Chuatoco, 16, are first-timers in the Asiad and are here to gain valuable experience in big-time tournaments.
The country’s judo icon, John Baylon, bowed out in his first match, losing to Kim Jae-bum of South Korea while Karen Ann Solomon won her opener against Lebanon’s Louize Bourached but lost to Korean Hwang Ye-sui in the quarterfinals then bowed to Tsend Ayush of Mongolia in the repechage.
Youth Olympian Jessie King Lacuna finished fifth in his heat in the men’s 200m freestyle with a time of 1:53.42, 4.35 seconds behind Korean sensation park Taehwan’s 1:49.15.
Erica Totten, meanwhile, clocked 5:01.59 in the women’s 400 individual medley, 16 seconds behind heat winner Li Xuanxu of China.
In men’s triathlon, Nikko Huelgas finished 11th in a 19-man field with a time of 2:01:54.21 while compatriot Neil Catiil was 14th after timing 2:05:28.59. Yuichi Hosoda of Japan topped the event with a time of 1:52:15.56
Cyclist Apryl Eppinger wound up 13th out of 16 entries in the women’s sprint qualifying and was a notch below the cut line after clocking 12.624 over 200m.
The country’s boxing team finally arrived here Sunday, the same day the delegation received news of Manny Pacquiao’s scintillating victory over Antonio Margarito in Dallas, Texas.
Deliver gold medals
The national boxing team, bankrolled by Smart, is also being counted on to deliver gold medals for the country, with its benefactor hoping to reap the fruits of a sponsorship program that allowed the national pugs to aggressively prepare for this quadrennial meet.
“It’s payback time,” said Ricky Vargas, president of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines and vice chair of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas. “Of course it will be disappointing if we don’t win a medal.”
Vargas said he is hoping that boxing will win at least one gold, especially since Smart Sports has poured nearly P300 million in financial support to boxing, basketball, taekwondo and cycling.
While track cyclists have gone zilch so far, the country hopes to strike in road racing.
Basketball barely survived a Kuwait team playing under the International Olympic Committee banner due to a suspension of its national Olympic committee by the IOC for government intervention and national coach Rajko Toroman was far from happy with the result.
“We didn’t play the way we expected,” said Toroman after rallying to beat the Kuwaitis, 76-69 Saturday. “We were the bigger team and we couldn’t find our rhythm. We couldn’t shoot from the outside and weren’t able to break their zone. It gave our next opponent a hint to play us with a zone.”
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