Cagers, boxers save day for RP

BUSAN – The Philippines got a big scare in basketball, struck hard in boxing, got stuck in rowing but was doing pretty well in billiards, too.

This, in a nutshell, described the performance of the Filipino athletes in the 14th Asian Games Wednesday with the basketball team plucking a victory, the third straight for the all-PBA squad, that helped the Philippines avoid a dreaded semifinal confrontation with undisputed champion and NBA-flavored China.

At the far away Masan Gymnasium, boxers Harry Tanamor and Romeo Brin defeated their respective opponents with the six other members of Team Caltex watching, screaming from the sidelines and so eager to do the same in their coming bouts.

Tanamor toyed with Myanmar’s Kyaw Swar Aung, 25-7, while Brin opted to slug it out with Mongolia’s Bayanmunkh Bayanjargal before escaping with a 20-16 decision as Team Caltex went two-for-two on the first day of boxing competition.

Those victories in boxing helped soothe the feelings of the entire RP delegation after rowers Jose Rodriguez and Benjie Tolentino both finished fourth in their respective events and failed to push the Philippines into the medal standings earlier in the day. Rodriguez, a native of Cauayan, Isabela, and a silver medalist in last year’s Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, timed 7:26.13.4 over 2,000 meters and was just a boat-length behind bronze winner Law Hiu Fung of Hong Kong (7:24.05).

In billiards, Efren "Bata" Reyes sailed into the quarterfinals of the 8-ball singles by beating Khaled Al-Mutaire of Kuwait, 9-1, avenging a 7-9 loss suffered by Lee Van Corteza to China’s Fu Jianbo in the pre-quarterfinal.

Reyes was scheduled to face the winner between Singapore’s Tey Choon Kiat and Malaysia’s Amir Ibrahim, neither posing any serious threat to the Filipino master heading into Thursday’s semifinals and finals.

Jethro Dionisio, meanwhile, showed the way after the first 75 targets of the trap event. He had 71 points (22-25-24) in a tie with China’s Zhang Yongie. Eric Ang was in 20th place with 62 points and Jaime Recio in 24th with 59.

Rasheya Jamin Luis finished 29th in the 10-m air rifle with 380 points, way behind China’s Yinhui Zhao who broke the Asian Games record with her 399. Emerito Concepcion was 19th in the 10-m air rifle with 584 points.

In swimmingRaphael Chua reached the finals of the 200-m breastroke where he landed eighth and last in 2:26.90, way behind world record holder and gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima of Japan (2:09.97). Miguel Mendoza finished fifth in the 400 meter finals in 4:01.11, nine seconds behind gold medalist Sunichi Fujita of Japan (3:50.41), making a gold medal potential for the Southeast Asian Games.

Those who failed to advance to the finals were Heidi Ong (100-m freestyle), Luica Dacanay (100-m butterfly) and Lizza Danila (00-m backstroke).

Cyclist Marites Bitbit was ninth in the 96-km individual road race finals while weightlifter Cecilia Atilano was ninth and last in the 58 kg class with 185.0 points compared to the Chinese winner, Zhou Yan Chi who had 220.0.

The Filipino fencers also failed to get past the preliminaries of the foil team and epee team.