Five days into the 14th Asian Games, the Philippines struck gold on a Friday that started as a dry, ordinary day as the great Paeng Nepomuceno and steady RJ Bautista topped the men’s doubles at the Homeplus Alley here.
It was the first Asiad gold for the 45-year-old Nepomuceno, the six-time world champion and the only four-time World Cup winner who came here favoring his left hand, which was injured two years ago.
"I’m very happy and very thankful we won the gold for the Philippines. I’d like to dedicate this to my parents, my family and the entire Filipino nation. We’re grateful for their prayers and support. Hopefully, we’ll win more golds," said Nepomuceno.
Bautista, at 24 young enough to be Nepomuceno’s son, did his part in giving the Philippines its first gold and match the country’s gold output in the Bangkok Asiad four years ago.
Both left-handed, Nepomuceno shot a six-game series of 1358 and Bautista had 1356 to lead Japan’s Isao Yamajoto and Seiji Watanabe by 44 pins. They were 51 pins ahead of Korea’s Kim Myoung-jo and Cho Namey and Taiwan’s Tsai Ting Yun and Chen Chih Wen who had identical 2663s for joint third.
Nepomuceno shot lines of 218, 279, 248, 213, 195, and 205 for 226.33 average while Bautista came through with games of 227, 225, 171, 276, 231 and 226 for a 226 norm.
The Philippines still has less than 10 days to win probably a couple more with strong bets in boxing, wushu, taekwondo coming in.
"We let one get away yesterday, we got one today," said RP coach Johnson Cheng. It was a good teamwork that did it."
It came on a day the RP basketball team won its fourth straight game, this time beating Chinese-Taipei, 83-69, leading up to its last quarterfinal match against China.
In the first four days of action, the Filipinos won five bronze medals — two in shooting and one each in rowing, billiards and bowling.
A new ray of hope appeared in billiards the day after Efren "Bata" Reyes suffered a crushing defeat in the 8-ball semis.
Warren Kiamco and Antonio Lining both hurdled their opening matches in 9-ball singles and advanced to the pre-quarterfinals in the evening.
Kiamco defeated Wong Tan Hong of Macau, 11-1, while Lining downed Leng San Fat, also of Macau, 11-4.
Francisco "Django" Bustamante will not see action until Sunday when he competes in the 9-ball doubles with Lining.
The men’s baseball team was literally laughed at as it gave away 22 hits against the Koreans in absorbing a 15-0 loss. It could have been much, much worse if not for the mercy rule that stopped the game after the seventh inning.
The RP batters, who weren’t supposed to be here in the first place, have yet to score a run in two games following their 12-0 loss to Japan Thursday.
Harry Tanamor delivered the only good news in boxing when he won for the second time and moved one win closer to the medal bouts of the lightfly division.
Tanamor, nicknamed Inday, bucked a swollen right hand to send Zou Shiming back to China with a 15-13 victory. The Filipino fighter hurt his hand in a 25-7 win over Myanmar’s Kyan Swar Aung last Wednesday but can rest it for his next fight on Tuesday.
Tanamor’s victory made up for the painful 17-11 loss by lightmiddle Chris Camat to Pakistan’s Kashif Muntaz, sending the Fil-American into the sidelines along with bantam Ferdie Gamo who lost Thursday.
Climbing the ring today for Team Caltex is flyweight Violito Payla, a serious medal contender who’ll face a tough Uzbek fighter.
In swimming, Miguel Molina and Carlo Piccio made it to the star-studded finals of the 400-m individual medley scheduled in the evening. They finished second and fourth in their heat with times of 4:31.49 and 4:32.78.
Molina finished a good sixth, the best finisher among Southeast Asian bets, with a clocking of 4:31.35. Piccio clocked 4:33.88 behind gold medalist Wu Peng of China who timed 4:15.38, an Asian Games record.
Miguel Mendoza was sixth in the 1,500m freestyle finals (15:46.40).
Lizza Danila also made it to the 200-m backstroke finals, finishing fourth in her heat at 2:20 while Luica Dacanay failed in the same event, landing fifth in her own heat. Heidi Ong finished fifth in her heat and failed to qualify for the 100-m freestyle finals with a time of 27.78.
The men’s golf team is turning out to be quite a disappointment.
Angelo Que, Juvic Pagunsan, Jerome Delariarte and Marlon Dizon, the best amateurs back home, all failed to match par for the second straight day and, wobbly, stood in eighth place in the team standings, 29 strokes off the pace.
Que, the best-placed among the four, fired rounds of 74-77 and is 10 strokes behind the surprise individual leader, a Sri Lankan by the name of Anura Rohana.
The female golfers — Ria Quiazon, Carmelette Villaroman and Heidi Chua — are doing a little better with Ria (78-72) just down by seven in the individual race and the team running third but down by 12 against the Japanese.
In women’s doubles, the RP bowlers failed to live up to expectations.
Liza del Rosario and Liza Clutario wound up 10th with 2429 pinfalls while Irene Garcia Benitez and Cecilia Yap landed in 15th with 2387. Unreachable, Malayia won the gold (2509), South Korea the silver (2550) and Thailand the bronze (2500).
The day wasn’t too good either in cycling, fencing, shooting, soft tennis and wrestling where the Filipino bets hardly gave their opponents some anxious moments.
Bryan Dimacili was seventh in the 200-m sprint with a clocking of 1:12.597, way off the Taiwanese and Japanese riders who led the way to the finals.
Edward Davilla, Walbert Mendoza and Edmond Velez lost to the Kazakhstan saber team, 45-24, while Ma. Lorena Bauzon, Lenita Reyes and Lorraine San Diego absorbed a painful 19-18 loss to Hong Kong’s epee team.
Therese Cantada, younger sister of pro golfer Gerard, lost sight in the 25-m air pistol, landing 24th with 555 points. A Chinese shooter won with 592 points.
Wenifredo de Leon Jr. and Richmond Paguyo lost twice in soft tennis doubles, taking hard hits from their foes from Taipei (5-0) and Korea (5-0), while their female counterparts, Petrona Bantay and Josephine Paguyo lost to Taipei (5-1) and Korea (5-0).
Wrestler Michael Baletin failed to shake off Japan’s Katsuhiko Nagata, 11-1, in third round action of the 74 kg Greco-Roman.
The men’s baseball teamlost to the all-pro Korean team, 0-15. The RP batters were also silenced in a 12-0 loss to Japan Thursday.