Orcollo gets going with 9-ball romp; Suarez falls
GUANGZHOU, CHINA—The Philippine boxing team got off to a nightmarish start Tuesday night as Kazakhstan unveiled a sleek-moving surprise in Daniyar Tulegenov, who scored a 7-1 victory that knocked off bantamweight bet Charly Suarez in the 16th Asian Games at the Foshan gymnasium.
Tulegenov tagged Suarez late in the first round for a 1-0 lead. He again connected weakly in the second to go up, 2-0. And the Filipino inexplicably pressed the attack too hard, opening himself to brilliant, sidestepping counters from the previously unknown Economics major.
“He may have lost his composure a little bit after that second punch because that looked like a soft, weak punch that scored,” said boxing association executive director Ed Picson. “I just felt that there were punches that should have scored for Charly that didn’t count. But that’s not an excuse. I felt he should have been more composed.”
Suarez did land punches of his own that did not register—he snuck in two clean straights in the middle of the second round and nicked Tulegenov with an uppercut in the third—and those no-counts only seemed to blur Suarez’s focus.
“Nanggigil,” Picson said. “I just feel like the final score did not reflect how close the fight really was.”
Suarez started unloading combinations that couldn’t find its target as Tulegenov flaunted quick lateral movements that not only kept him out of harm’s way, but also allowed him to load up on counters that surprised the Filipino. In fact, most of the points the Kazakh scored after going up 2-0 were on counters.
Meanwhile, Dennis Orcollo—born into a fishing family in Southern Philippines—has been forced to skipper the tattered remnants of a once vaunted billiards team as it seeks a gold medal here.
And he proved more than capable, punishing pool lightweight Odkhuu Purevsuren of Mongolia , 9-2, at the start of the preliminary round of the 9-ball singles competition Tuesday at the Asian Games Town gymnasium.
“We talk about it every day,” the 32-year-old Orcollo told the Inquirer in Filipino. “We know people expected us to deliver and we’re the ones left to carry the fight in billiards and we will do our very best to get a gold.”
A day after the bowling squad went gold-bronze courtesy of Biboy Rivera and Frederick Ong to boost the country’s medal count, it became all quiet at the battlefront for Team Philippines. A finals appearance by the men’s relay in swimming looked to be the day’s highlight as the women bowlers failed to match the men’s start at the Tianhe Bowling Center.
Liza del Rosario rolled an 1157 to finish tied for 13th in the first block while Liza Clutario could only manage an 1101 to end up 24th. The toher Filipinos in the second block played in the afternoon did not fare any better, with Marianne Posadas the best finisher there with an 1183 (eighth place).
Kimberly Mae Lao rolled an 1166 (12th), Lara Posadas had an 1104 (19th) and Krizziah Lyn Tabora finished with a 1084 (22nd) to round up the second block.
The Philippines was thus stuck at one gold and three bronzes—the two other third-place medals courtesy of dancesports—and was at 10th place in an overall standings lorded over by China’s 63-gold, 22-silver, 22-bronze haul.
South Korea was leading in the “other” gold race—the one for second place—collecting 19 gold medals, 15 silvers and 23 bronzes with Japan breathing close at 14 golds, 26 silvers and 26 bronzes.
Of the Southeast Asian nations, only Malaysia was above the Philippines with the same number of golds and bronzes, but with one silver.
Orcollo will try to add to the country’s gold collection as he spearheads a squad shredded by first-round losses suffered by Roberto Gomez and Efren “Bata” Reyes in 8-ball singles, which should have produced a single medal at the very least.
“It’s sad to see Roberto and Efren lose,” Orcollo admitted. “But we’re still here. Warren [Kiamco] and I will try our best to make it an all-Filipino final to assure us of a gold medal. The snooker team, with Marlon [Manalo] there is still formidable and our women’s team is doing well.”
“God-willing, we should be able to get a medal and hopefully, it will be gold,” he added.
Kiamco was set to break in his opening match in the 9-ball singles at presstime.
“It’s a lot of pressure on us who are still in contention, but Efren is still around and he talks to us a lot,” Orcolo revealed. “He talks to the women’s team a lot. Django [Bustamante] is around even if he’s not competing and he gives us tips. He also helps us with our technique. We’re one team here and we help each other out even if it’s just to calm each other’s nerves.”
Orcollo zoomed to a 4-0 start but admitted he tapered off a bit, trying instead to memorize the quirks of the tables at the billiards hall for future matches. Purevsuren managed to rack up two wins in a row before Orcollo finally went for the kill.
“I really let my concentration down a bit after the first two racks,” Orcollo said. “I knew then that my opponent did not pose any real threat so I simply tried to familiarize myself with the table and also reserve my form for the tougher matches.”
Orcollo next faces Japanese Masaaki Tanaka, whom he played against only once before and emerged victorious during a tournament in Japan.
Daniel Coakley, Miguel Molina, Jessie Lacuna and Charles Walker completed the 4 x 100m freestyle relay in 3:37.32, qualifying seventh in a field of eight teams that included powerhouse squads from Korea, Japan and China Tuesday at the Aoti Aquatics center.
Just across the block at the Aoti Shooting Range, youngster Alyanna Chuatoco again got overwhelmed by veteran shooters and finished near the bottom of the women’s 25m pistol qualification round.
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