Paguyo excluded in singles

BUSAN — Medal prospect Josephine Paguyo is out of the women’s singles competition even before the 14th Asian Games’ soft tennis tournament could start.

The entry of Paguyo, third-placer in both the 1995 World Cup and 2000 Asian Soft Tennis Championships, was not included in the three groups of the preliminary round action which starts tomorrow at the Sajik clay courts here.

"Nagulat ako ng mabalitaan kong hindi ako kasali sa singles. Nasayang lang po ang six months preparation at team effort ng women’s team namin," said Paguyo in between sobs. "Sa Manila na lang po kami mag-iimbestiga kung paano nangyari ito."

Taking the cudgels for the Philippine Soft Tennis Association which inadvertently failed to enter Paguyo and teammate Petrona Bantay in the singles event, POC president Celso Dayrit appealed to OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) sports committee chair Wei Zhuong "in the spirit of friendship which OCA invoked when it ruled in favor of the Malaysian request for its sepak takraw team in a similar situation."

In his faxed handwritten reply, Zhuong turned down the appeal, saying "your request is technically impossible."

Paguyo, the first Southeast Asian soft netter to qualify for the Busan Asian Games after capturing the gold medal in the third SEAST tournament in Manila last June and placing fourth behind three Japanese girls and ahead of two Chinese players in the recent China Cup in Shanghai, vowed to concentrate on her doubles and mixed doubles events.

Paguyo and Bantay are bracketed in Group B with Korean champions Park Young-Hee and Kim Myung-Hee, reigning World Cup singles titlist Wang Shi-ting and Chou Chiu-ping of Chinese-Taipei and Malaysia’s Narantsetseg Lhagvajav and Enkbmaa Borbaatar.

The Filipinos need two victories to make the qualification round that would put them a win away from a bronxe medal finish.

The brother-sister pair of Josephine and Richmond Paguyo and the Bantay-Wenifredo de Leon duo start their mixed doubles campaign tomorrow.