Archers pick up two golds

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — The Philippine archery team struck paydirt, snatching two more golds — in the men’s recurve and women’s compound finals — in a controversy-marred last day of archery competitions at the Remy Football Field here yesterday afternoon.

The men’s compound team was not as lucky though as it fell prey to powerhouse Malaysia to settle for silver as the curtains fell on archery competitions of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games (SEAG).

The men’s recurve team registered the first gold medal win of the host nation when the quartet of Marvin Cordero, Mark Javier, Christian Cubilla and Florante Mactan survived a strong charge by Indonesia to win in a shoot-off, 25-24, after engaging the visitors in a 235-all stand-off after 27 arrows.

The Indonesians, with Kuswantoro, Lockoreco, Rahmat Sulistiyawan and Hendro Suprianto at the firing end, looked headed for the gold by dominating the first and second ends, 159-156 and 80-77, respectively.

After the last arrow was released, the Indonesians were actually celebrating prematurely, thinking they had the gold in the bag without waiting for the final official scores. The players even doused water on their coach and on each other with their Filipino counterparts even shaking their hands in a show of sportsmanship.

But when the scores were finally released, it turned out that the two teams had identical tallies of 235, with the Indonesians shaking their head in disbelief. A brief commotion ensued, prompting chief arbiter, Cuban Sergio Fort Milian to re-check the scores, thus, causing a suspension of the proceedings.

Milian, vice president of the FIT or the International Federation of Archery and head of the FITA technical delegate ultimately ruled a tie, paving the way for a shoot-off. The Indonesians apparently lost their focus and lost by a hairline.

Luk Yee Mei Elsie, a judge from Hong Kong, who was also monitoring the event appears convinced that the Indonesian had won the battle. "Indonesia was ahead. How come they made it equal," she told The STAR.

But Jun Cortez, coach of the recurve team, said it was no longer their fault if an error was committed in the scoring. "It’s finished already. They allowed us to play the shoot-off. They should have confirmed it first," he protested vehemently.

The women’s compound team put in a gallant fight to beat many-time champion Indonesia, 236-226, in a gripping final to win the country’s third gold in archery.