RP’s Asiad feat best in 16 years

BUSAN, South Korea – The Philippines leaned on the last day exploit of a pretty equestrienne to come up with its best finish in 16 years and somehow erase the stigma of its bitter defeat in basketball as the nation closed its Asian Games stint here in Busan, South Korea.

Although it didn’t meet its bold predictions of winning a minimum of five gold medals when it left Manila three weeks ago, Team Philippines did an impressive finish with three golds, matching its output in Hiroshima in 1994.

And it took the heroics of Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski in the individual showjumping in a nerve-wracking jumpoff to boost RP to 18th overall in the 44-nation field.

Thus, the nation not only matched its Hiroshima output but came up with its best finish since the 1986 Seoul Games where it had four golds, five silvers and nine bronzes. This time, the Philippines had three golds, seven silvers and 16 bronzes.

At the close of the competition among Asia’s best, the RP contingent broke camp at the Athletes Village while its leaders took stock of things, the finals they made or missed, the triumphs and setbacks and the medals, regardless of color, they won.

Now they will try to assess the overall efforts of the contingent, reflect on the losses and chart the course of action it would take for the future and the future of RP sports.

But there’s one heartbreak it would love to forget.

The RP basketball team reeled from its shocking loss to South Korea and went on to lose to Kazakhstan to finish only fourth. It was the worst finish for RP since a similar pro team ended medal-less eight years ago in Hiroshima.

The Koreans later made an epic upset of defending champion China, 102-100, in overtime to win the gold.

"We’re happy with our performance in this Asian Games and I am honored and proud to be a witness to the performance of our athletes because they are convinced that they can do it. They can compete with the best here," said Philippine Sports Commission chair Eric Buhain.

The PSC spent P50 million for training and buildup since January and earmarked P35 million for actual participation of 218 athletes.

"We ended it on a happy note. We surpassed our target of improving our performance four years ago. Although we didn’t meet our minimum of five golds, we did have our best finish in 16 years and it gave our nation something to be joyful for in a sense that our athletes showed they could improve further," said Philippine Olympic Committee chief Cito Dayrit.

Chief of mission Tom Carrasco cited the medals won as compared to those won by the team in Bangkok and Hiroshima as a gauge of a successful campaign in Busan. It had three golds, two silvers and eight bronzes in Hiroshima and one gold, five silvers and 10 bronzes in Bangkok.

"We have the better count, medal-wise. Although we were below our expectation we take these results as a turning point of what to expect in the next Southeast

Asian Games and the 2006 Asian Games in Doha," said Carrasco. Only boxing didn’t deliver on the three B’s the Filipinos pinned their hope for gold with bowling producing one on top of two silvers and one bronze and billiards one gold and one bronze. Boxing had only a silver and a bronze to show, underscoring an eight-year slump since its great run of three golds in Hiroshima.

The tandem of Paeng Nepomuceno and RJ Bautista, a sure-fire combine of youth and experience, captured the first gold for RP in bowling’s men’s doubles, the team of Django Bustamante and Antonio Lining duplicated the feat in nine-ball doubles in billiards and then Jaworski won RP’s lone individual gold in showjumping on the very last day of the Asian Games.

Three other disciplines which were traditional source of gold also came up short. Golf, represented by a solid team of amateurs, won only the women’s bronze, taekwondo had four bronzes and wushu two silvers and three bronzes.