Macaranas, Fuentes bag 4 canoe medals

HERMIE Macaranas and Ojay Fuentes paddled their way to four medals in the recent 2014 Southeast Asian Canoe Sprint Championships at Marina Bay Reservoir in Singapore.

Fresh from a stint in the Incheon Asian Games, Macaranas, 19, pocketed a silver medal in the men’s 500-meter canoe singles in one minute and 58.95 seconds.

Thant Zin Oo of Burma (Myanmar) grabbed the gold and Muhamad Yunus Rustandi of Indonesia took the bronze in the pre-Southeast Asian Games meet also participated in by entries from Vietnam and Thailand.

Macaranas, bronze medalist in the Southeast Asian Games last year in Burma, joined forces with 16-year-old Fuentes in snaring a pair of bronze medals in the men’s 500m and 200m canoe doubles against the best paddlers in the region.

“These races helped us gauge the potential of our young paddlers,” said Philippine Canoe-Kayak Federation president Jonne Go.  “We also saw how other countries perform, allowing us to draw up our strategy for the coming SEA Games.”

Fuentes, a prized find from Cebu who started paddling as early as nine years old, copped a bronze in the men’s 200m canoe singles.

“We’re bidding for the Olympics.  Hermie will be looking to qualify in 2016 while Ojay is being groomed for 2020 in Tokyo,” said Go.

According to Go, Macaranas will use the world championships and the continental qualification next year as springboard for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. June Navarro