Cagers, tankers sparkle in RP’s day of gloom

BUSAN–As far as the Philippine participation is concerned, Day One belonged to basketball and, in one way or another, water sports.

Undaunted by the presence of a 7-foot-9 giant Ri Myung Hun, the RP dribblers grilled their North Korean opponents, 89-63, Monday in the first full day of intense competition in the 14th Asian Games here.

"Still a long way to go, but at least we’re there," said head coach Jong Uichico, whose charges will next face Japan, China and Chinese-Taipei leading to the semifinals.

The victory in basketball proved to be the highlight of another cold but windless day for the Filipino athletes who also scored hits in some fronts but at the same time suffered flops in more.

Rower Jose Rodriguez, in his first Asian Games, created his own ripples when he made it to Wednesday’s finals of the lightweight singles sculls, topping his heat with a time of 1:59.43 for 2,000 meters.

Sixteen-year-old swimmer Luica Dacanay finished last in her women’s 200-m butterfly heat but set a new Philippine record of 2:22.36, slicing a fraction of a second off the previous mark of 2:22.93 set by Alzina Lim during a 1998 Southeast Asian age-group competition.

Coach Ral Rosario, in jubilation, almost jumped into Dacanay as she emerged from the pool. But sad to say, it’s the medal that counts here.

But another tanker also showed a lot of promise as 18-year-old Miguel Molina, a Fil-American product of UCLA, finished second in his heat in the 200-m individual medley. He reached the finals set later in the evening, placing a decent sixth with a time of 2:06.45 behind gold medal winner Takahiro Mori of Japan (2:0.53). Thai Ratapo Sirisanont was fifth (2:05.18).

Molina, who comes from a family of athletes, his father being a former baseball player and his mother a former cagebelle with UP, had a time of 2:05.97, the fifth best clocking heading into the finals.

"Well, I’m proud of our athletes. They played their hearts out. For me, it was a successful day in basketball, swimming and rowing. Overall, maganda although we really expect the medals to come in the next few days. Masaya ako," said PSC chairman Eric Buhain.

Another rower, Sydney Olympian Benjie Tolentino, finished second in his single sculls heat and would need to win a second heat to make it to the finals.

Heidi Ong finished sixth and last in her 200-m freestyle heat but felt some consolation looking at her 2:15.55 clocking, so much better than her previous best of 2:23.0.

Raphael Chua wound up fourth in his 100-m breaststroke heat in 1:05.25 and failed to qualify.

Cyclist Victor Espiritu finished seventh in the 48 km individual time trial with a time of 1:06:05.860 and satisfied himself with the fact that he had beaten Hong Kong’s Wong Kam Po, his expected rival in Thursday’s 200 km individual road race.

"Masaya na ako doon," said Espiritu, looking forward to Thursday’s race won by the Hong Kong sports hero during the 1998 Bangkok Asiad. The two cyclists are both former winners of the Marlboro Tour back home.

Kazakhstan’s Andrei Teteriouk, Kyrgyztan’s Evgeny Vakker and Uzbekistan’s Sergey Krushevskiy, all veterans of the Tour de France, took the gold, silver and bronze medals, at least four minutes ahead of the Filipino.

Female cyclist Marites Bitbit failed to carry on, finishing ninth in the 24.2 ITT with a time of 39:32.120. The winner, China’s Li Meifang, was miles ahead at 24:24.820.

The RP women’ softball team hit the dust in a 0-5 loss to South Korea in a quick roundup of the day.