RP, Malaysia brace for duel for fourth

HANOI, Vietnam (Via Globe Telecom) — Philippine officials raised the alarm in Hanoi and the distant city of Ho Chi Minh throughout the day, hoping to gain the expected golds as the country braced for a down-to-the-wire showdown with Malaysia in the fight for fourth place heading into the last two days of the 22nd Southeast Asian Games yesterday.

Only three gold medals separated the Philippines (34) and Malaysia (37) by midday after the Filipinos struck for seven golds, eight in all including a late Wednesday taekwondo gold, as Arnel Ferrera won the hammer throw in athletics, fencer Wally Mendoza retained his title in the saber event and the men’s team ruled foil event, wushu artists Willy Wang and Arvin Ting, competing for the first time, won in their respective event and Donald Geisler shone in taekwondo.

Athletics remained the most consistent with the golds won at seven but suffered hiccups in two shocking reversals yesterday -- Eduardo Buenavista in the 5,000-m run and John Lozada in the 800m run.

Veronica Domingo won in the women’s lightweight division in taekwondo late Wednesday, a feat duplicated by Geisler in the 67-kg while the men’s foil team of Rolando Canlas, Ramil Endrano, Ruperto Endriano, Jr., and Emerson Segui, gave the nation its third fencing gold.

That surpassed the nation’s 31-gold output in the Kuala Lumpur two years ago with still a full day of competition ahead and a sprinkling of finals on the last day Sunday.

Sports officials said that despite the loss of the Philippines in sports like boxing, rowing and cycling, they are still on target for the minimum 40-gold medal total but the bigger battles loom ahead as the Philippine camp bids for a respectable fourth place finish among 11 countries.

"We are on target. We may have lost some in sports we have expected to deliver the gold but there are some sports where we did not expect to win any and have delivered," said PSC chair Eric Buhain, who arrived here Wednesday from Ho Chi Minh where he visited Filipinos campaigning in 11 sports there.

Vietnam surged inexorably to its first-ever SEAG Games overall title since joining the Games in 1989 with 103 gold medals, way past its minimum projection of 90.

Thailand, which was looking for 120 gold medals for the overall title, was at second with 75, its hopes ruined by the host country’s domination of shooting and big strides in traditionally Thai domains in athletics, gymnastics, and contact sports.

Indonesia, the undisputed champion during the years of its economic boom in the 80s and early 90s, is a far third with 45 golds.

The Philippines and Malaysia were in a tight contest for fourth before midnight Wednesday until Malaysia rhythmic gymnasts came home with four golds to break the impasse.

The Philippines is already counting on a number of givens like the gold in men’s basketball, marathon, long game in chess (team and individual), and two more in billiards to get closer to the magic 40 .

The boxing team, assembled from a stable of toughened international campaigners and relative new ones harnessed for the 2005 Games, was a big disappointment as it lost in a "showdown in neutral territory" with archrival Thailand.

The Thais clobbered the Filipinos in all five events and lost only one gold to Indonesia to regain overall boxing supremacy with seven of the nine gold medals at stake.

The Philippines had one through Harry Tañamor, whose 32-9 victory over Indonesian Reonando Butar Butar made him the best boxer of the competitions.

"Our sights should now be on the Olympics, this (SEA Games loss) is only a temporary setback," boxing head Manny Lopez.

The powerful tandem of Alvin Amposta and Nestor Cordova, the Asian Games silver medalists, lost to defending champion Indonesia in the lightweight pair sculls in rowing, while lightweight single sculls top bet Jose Rodriguez bowed to a Vietnamese who trained for 12 months in China.

Cycling paraded the best of the Pilipinas Tour in the 160k road race but Warren Davadilla was the only visible contender for the eventual champion, Malaysian Sharul Neeza Razalli, a former Marlboro tour participant who has trained in the tough commercial circuits in Europe.