Netters, judokas come to grief

THE PHILIPPINES’ Kiyomi Watanabe (in blue) gets pinned on the mat by Japan’s Kana Abe in Sunday’s quarterfinals of the -63 kg division of women’s judo of the 17th Asian Games at Dowon Gymnasium in Incheon, South Korea. Watanabe dropped a 0-2 decision. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

INCHEON, South Korea—The Philippine suffered setbacks on all fronts Sunday, managing just one victory that was immediately wiped out by a loss at the 17th Asian Games here.

That left the delegation looking forward to Monday, where the country’s wushu squad—touted as a medal hopeful—will have three fighters competing in the quarterfinal round at Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium.

Divine Wally battles Kim Hye-bin of South Korea in the women’s sanda -52 kg class, Francisco Solis takes on Wong Ting Hong of Hong Kong in the men’s sanda -56 kg while Jean Claude Saclag faces Indonesia’s Hendrik Tarigan in the -60 kg men’s sanda.

A victory by the three fighters will assure them of bronze medals. That glimmer of hope could cushion the series of debacles suffered by the Philippine delegation, which is hoping to better its 3-4-9 gold-silver-bronze haul during the 2010 Guangzhou edition of the quadrennial Games.
The country’s tennis men’s and women’s teams crashed out in the team competition at Yeorumul Tennis Courts on Sunday morning.

Competing at court 1, Treat Huey came up with a strong first set before dropping the next two in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Wang Yeu-tzuoo.

Patrick John Tierro, who is making a comeback for the Philippine team, was also shown the door via a clinical 6-0, 6-0 dismantling at the hands of Lu Yen-hsun.

Huey and Ruben Gonzales later teamed up for a consolation victory in the no-bearing doubles match, tripping Chen Ti and Peng Hsien-yin, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-4) in a match that took two hours and 35 minutes to finish.

“The teams really played the doubles out because both wanted to prepare for the singles and doubles events,” said men’s coach Cris Cuarto. “It was a confidence boost for us.”

In the women’s team event, Han Na-lae of host South Korea left Denise Dy befuddled in the first set before overcoming a mild hiccup in the second to hammer out a 6-0, 6-3 victory.

Jang Seujong later iced the victory for the hosts with a hard-fought 6-3, 7-5 win over gutsy Filipino-German ace Katharina Lehnert.
“We competed well and we were really in the rallies but we just couldn’t get breaks,” said women’s coach and former national team standout Czarina Mae Arevalo.

Dy and Lehnert later lost the doubles match, 6-3, 6-2, to Han and Yoo Mi.

In judo, Filipino-Japanese Kiyomi Watanabe was within sight of an outright bronze medal but ran into Japan’s Kana Abe in the quarterfinals, dropping a 0-2 decision and falling to the repechage round—which she will need to top in the hope of landing a medal in the -63 kg class.

Watanabe, a gold medalist in the Burma (Myanmar) Southeast Asian Games in 2013, made the last eight with a 1-0 triumph over Turkmenistan’s Gulnar Hayybayeva.

That was the delegation’s only victory on Sunday. Gilbert Ramirez, meanwhile, lost to Dastan Ykybayev of Kazakhstan in the first round of their -73 kg duel.

Shooters Hagan Topacio and Eric Ang failed to make their climb in the classification round of the men’s trap event topped by Fehaid Aldeehani of Kuwait.

Topacio finished 28th with 112 points while Ang collected a five-round total of 108 to finish in 37th place.

Jessie Khing Lacuna, on the other hand, topped the first heat of the men’s 200m freestyle with a time of 1:53.20.

But that was only good for 15th out of 25 competitors and he failed to reach the final eight. He was also three seconds off the mark that would have booked him a berth to a qualifying tournament for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics later this year.

Up next for swimming at Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center is Jasmine Alkhaldi, who competes in the women’s 100m freestyle heat on Monday morning.