Disaster strikes RP anew

BUSAN — Taekwondo, athletics, archery and badminton produced the same kind of results Thursday for another dry, medal-less day for the Philippines in the 14th Asian Games here.

Roberto Cruz, the undisputed finweight champion in Southeast Asia, was just an ordinary guy in this city by the bay, losing in the first round to Tajikistan’s Matin Boboev by superiority.

Eva Marie Ditan, a bronze medalist in the 2001 World Championships in Vietnam, defeated Bhutan’s Bidha Kinley in the first round before the Sydney Olympian bowed to China’s Wang Ying, a finweight who stood a head taller than the Filipina who also lost via superiority.

The third Filipino jinn to stuff his kimono in the bag was Alexander Briones who drew a bye in the first round of the lightweight division, then defeated Nepal’s Shrestha Niranjan before losing to Kazakhstan’s Yerden Yesbol.

A victory over his Kazakh opponent would have assured Briones of a bronze medal in taekwondo where 16 gold medals are at stake over four days at the Gudeok Gymnasium.

Flyweight Tshomlee Go, flyweight Daleen Cordero and welterweight Veronica Domingo will see action Friday afternoon, each one of them hoping to make it to the evening finals and deliver a third gold for the Philippines in this Asiad.

After 11 days of competition going into the closing stages of the 44-nation meet, the Philippines also has three silver and six bronze medals under its belt.

Sheila Mae Perez, a veteran of the Sydney Games, was the only Filipino who came close to a medal Thursday as she continued to show a lot of promise in finishing fourth in the women’s 3-m springboard.

The 16-year-old beauty from Davao ranked third after the preliminaries, slipped to fourth in the semis and stayed there in the finals against a tough field and the biting-cold water of the Sajik pool.

Over at the gleaming main stadium, trackster Eduardo Buenavista finished ninth in the 5,000-m run at 13:58:43 but satisfied himself with a new RP record, eclipsing the 14:00.26 set by Hector Begeo in 1995 in Melbourne.

Saudi Arabia’s Al Otaibi Makhad won the gold at 13:41.48.

Buenavista, who will turn 24 on Sunday, also broke the RP record in the 10,000-m last Monday despite finishing 12th with a time of 29:02.06. The previous mark of 30:34.61 belonged to Mario Castro.

In high jump, Sean Guevarra landed on the cushion in 14th place with a best effort of 2.05 meters. The gold went to South Korea’s Lee Jin Taek at 2:23.

The men’s archery team made up of Marvin Cordero, Christian Cubilla, Florante Matan and Arnold Rojas lost to the Bhutan bets, 237-228, while the women’s squad composed of Purita Joy Marino, Joan Tabanag, Joan Chan and Rachell Ann Cabral won over Bhutan, 222-220, but lost to China in the quarterfinals, 241-216.

In badminton, Kennevic Asuncion’s bid was cut short by a Thai with a long name, Anuphap Theeraratsakul, 15-11, 15-10.

The badminton competitions took a blow Wednesday when Indonesia’s Hidayat Taifuk, the world No. 1, in disgust over the officiating, walked out of his match against South Korea’s Seung Mo Shon in the men’s team final.

Taifuk, however, was prevailed upon by Indonesian team officials and the match resumed, being played as of press time.

Action in wushu, the Chinese martial arts sport where the Filipinos are also expected to shine, started Thursday with the preliminary rounds.

Mary Lim was running fifth in the women’s taijiquan (9.43) while Janice Hung was in 14th in the women’s changquan (8.7), Arvin Ting third in the men’s changquan (9.3) and Mark Rosales eighth (9.2).

In combat wushu, Marvin Sicomen won over Kyrgyztan’s Utkir Hudarayog in the 52 kg class (2-1) while Rexel Nganhayna defeated Indonesia’s Edward Marentera in the 56 kg. division, 2-0. Joseph Pasiwat posted a similar 2-0 win over Iran’s Mohammadinasab Mahdi in their 60 kg bout.