Asusano, strongest thrower, shrugs off DQ to notch second gold medal

GOLDEN THROW Cendy Asusano shows winning form in ruling the women’s shot put F54 in athletic action at the Manahan Stadium in the 11th ASEAN Para Games Wednesday in Surakarta, Indonesia.

Cendy Asusano felt awful that she wasn’t able to stretch her superiority in the discus throw the other day.

The country’s strongest female para athlete in throwing automatically erased the forgettable memory by winning her second gold medal at the 11th Asean Para Games (APG) in Surakarta, Indonesia.

Asusano returned on the field on Wednesday with a victory in the women’s shot put F54 following a disqualification in the discus where she reigned in the previous edition of the meet in 2017 Kuala Lumpur.

“It’s really disappointing but I’m glad to recover from the disqualification,” Asusano, whose throw of 5.65 meters on her fourth try wiped out her old mark of 5.50m in the last APG five years ago, said in Filipino.

Prior to her trip to the ongoing meet featuring the best para athletes in Southeast Asia, Asusano was the defending champion in all three throwing events.

“I didn’t want the discus incident to affect my performance in the shot put, so I immediately tried to forget about it,” said Asusano.

The Pasig-based standout topped the javelin throw on opening day of action at the Manahan Stadium before the disqualification on Tuesday.

Over at the Jatadiri Sports Complex in Semarang, swimmers Roland Sabido and Arnel Aba added silver and bronze medals, respectively, to augment the country’s collection.

Sabido was second in the men’s 100-m backstroke S9 event in one minute, 15.820 seconds while Aba bagged the bronze medal in the men’s 100-m butterfly stroke S9 event in 1:23.40.

But the PH swimmers hope to recover from Wednesday’s anemic showing with 2017 gold medalist Gary Bejino, veteran Ernie Gawilan and Angel Otom expected to vie for gold on Thursday.

Contributing bronze medals in athletics were King James Reyes and Andy Avellana in the men’s 1,500-m T46 race and Men’s High Jump T42/T63 event, respectively.

Table tennis likewise delivered a bronze through the Class 10 mixed doubles tandem of Pablo Catalan Jr. and Minnie Cadag, who took a 6-11, 8-11, 4-11 loss to Indonesia’s Komet Akbar and Aminah in the semifinals.

Overnight, judo also gave the country its first medal in the sport courtesy of Deterson Onas in the men’s J1-60 kilogram class.