4 golds in the cold, in the rings

HANOI, Vietnan (Via Globe Telecom) — Athletics made a stellar presentation anew with all the drama and color before a full-house crowd, while a Fil-American gave the Filipinos a rare golden moment in gymnastics but the Philippines slipped to No. 5 overall in of the 22nd Southeast Asian Games last night.

Ernie Candelario, Rene Herrera and John Lozada produced unmistakable wins in front of over 25,000 Vietnamese who filled theNational Sports Complex track and field stadium to the rafters on a cold, windy afternoon as they won their events in another classic show of guts.

Candelario, racing according to the style and power of his mentor — Isidro del Prado, once Asia’s fastest in the 400 meters — retained his title with a clocking of 47.06 seconds.

He edged compatriot Jimar Aing, who made a strong finishing kick to beat Thai Narong Nilploy, the 2001 SEAG silver medalist and the Filipinos’ only worthy opponent in the race.

Aing had a time of 47:23 seconds, beating the Thai (47.31) by an arm’s length.

Eduardo Buenavista, the 10,000 m run winner a day earlier, was the top favorite to retain his title in the 3,000m steeplechase but the five-foot middle-distance runner, bothered by a harmstring injury that might aggravate and hardly given enough rest, gave up halfway in the race.

Still, athletics chief Go Teng Kok had another winner in reserve — his second man Rene Herrera — who picked up where Buenavista fell, towed the field that was reduced to only three runners and raced home clear winner in 8:50.78.

In gymnastics, Neil Faustino, a 20-year-old find from Chicago, Illinois, finished tied for the gold with Nguyen Min Tuan of Vietnam on a similar score of 9.412 points in the men’s 3-rings event.

"Nothing is as exciting as this," said Faustino of the first gold the Filipinos landed in the medal-rich sport of gymnastics.

"So far, very good," said Philippine Olympic Committee president Celso Dayrit of the Philippines’ 15th gold medal after three days of competition.

Dayrit said the Philippines is well within the target of at least 40 gold medals although he cautioned against a possible one-sided domination by the Vietnamese, who had surged to the top since day one of the 12-day competitions in 32 sports.

As of 9 p.m. yesterday, Vietnam had 59 gold medals, more than double Thailand’s productionof 27, even as protests on bad officiating which tended to favor the host nation could mount in contact sports and even in other sports where the format of competition was changed at the last minute to confuse the opposition.

Malaysia was running third with 18 while Indonesia had 17.

The Philippines is looking for six golds in boxing after Juanito Magliquian (45kg), Harry Tañamor (48kg), Roel Laguna (57kg) and Mark Jason Melligen (64kg) reached the finals.

The national basketball team is also in line for the gold.

The cycling goes flat out today for the gold in the 160k road race, parading a team of former tour champions in Victor Espiritu, Arnel Quirimit and Warren Davadilla, and veterans Enrique Domingo, Merculio Ramos and Ryan Tanguilig.

The wrestlers, still in the thick of the eliminations, hope to pin down at least five gold medals, barring any unfavorable officiating. Reynaldo Grandea goes for the gold in the English Billiard Singles which starts with the first round this afternoon.