RP bowlers running 2nd in men’s trios

DOHA— Denied of a chance the last time out, the Philippines braced for another medal finish in the men’s trios of the bowling competitions in the 15th Asian Games as four-time World Cup champion Paeng Nepomuceno finally flashed his form to power the RP squad to No. 2 after the first block at the Qatar Bowling Center here yesterday.

Nepomuceno, one of the only three gold medallists from the Busan Asiad squad, burned the lanes on the third frame with a sizzling 298, just two pins short of a perfect game, and with Chester King firing 211 and Tyrone Ongpauco scoring 185, the Philippines jumped from out of nowhere to second place with a 1989, nine pins behind the pacesetting Malaysia, which had a 1998. Japan took third position with 1981.

The second block of the men’s trios will be played today while the first block of the women’s trios still has to start at presstime.

The 49-year-old Nepomuceno, who groped for form in the singles and doubles, actually went cold after opening the trios with a 246 as he lost his touch with a 196. But the veteran campaigner, who won the doubles gold with RJ Bautista in Busan in 2002, regained his bearing, touch and all in the third frame to touch off that searing game.

That RP surge also dropped the other RP squad of Biboy Rivera, Markwin Tee and CJ Suarez to No. 10 after occupying the third spot with half of the field still had to complete play.

But while bowling stayed on track, boxing suffered its first casualty after five fighters advanced to the quarters as Delfin Boholst bumped into a taller, heftier Shin Myun Hoong of Korea, 12-31, in the light welterweight division.

The Filipinos also bowed out of the team event in tennis after Fil-Am Cecil Mamiit blew a first set win by dropping the next two to Taiwanese Lu Yen Hsun, 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, at the Khalifa International tennis and squash complex. Eric Taino earlier lost to Wang Yeu Tzuoo, 2-6, 2-6.

Except for the victory of Parley Tupaz and Rhovyl Velayo in men’s beach volley at the Sport City, the Filipino athletes got clobbered in other fronts they competed in.

The RP bets were swept in swimming, booted out in rowing and took humbling defeats in soft tennis, billiards and road cycling.

Midway through the fifth day of the Asiad, the Filipinos remained without a medal of any color. Meanwhile, China continued to frolic with its world class athletes as it raised its haul 46 golds, 22 silvers and 12 bronzes. Japan took second place with a 12-16-19 tally followed by South Korea, which amassed a 9-13-27 (gold-silver-bronze) haul.

Rivera, the reigning world masters champion, came away with 647 pins after the first three games while Tee, winner of the SEA Games masters crown, made 617 as the Philippines, medal-less after three full days of action, turned in an 1822. Suarez had a 558.

Tee, in partnership with Ongpauco, almost made it to the medal finish in Monday’s doubles event with a 2742 aggregate but a late surge by Saudi Arabia had the Filipinos relegated to fifth place finish. The Saudis pooled a 2821 to snatch the gold medal from Qatar and United Arab Emirates, which both had 2782s.

The women’s pair of Liza Clutario and Daisy Posadas finished sixth in the doubles with a 2568, 103 pins behind gold medal winner Singapore(2671) but only 30 pins behind bronze medal winner Japan, which had a 2598. Korea took the silver with 2620, respectively.

In swimming, the quartet of Miguel Molina, James Walsh, Kendrick Uy and Daniel Coakley qualified fifth fastest in the men’s 4 x 100-meter relay event. The team clocked 3:31.91, 8.56 seconds behind pacesetter China.

James Walsh (19th, 26.02) and Ernest Lorenzo Dee (21st, 26.13) failed to keep up with the searing pace in the men’s 50-meter butterfly. In the women’s 100-meter breastroke, Denjylie Cordero placed fifth in her heat and 13th overall with a time of 1:17.33.

Fil-American Erica Totten placed 19th (27.91) in the women’s 50-meter freestyle while Ryan Paulo Arabejo took 18th (1:01.57) in the men’s 100-meter backstroke.

The country’s gold medal bid in rowing ended early Tuesday when the pair of Benjamin Tolentino Jr. and Jose Rodriguez finished fourth and last in the semifinal heat of the men’s double sculls event.

Alvin Amposta and Nilo Cordova, on the other hand, advanced to Final C where they will fight for seventh place. The Filipino batters suffered their fourth straight loss with a 0-15 thumping at the hands of the Taiwanese.

In soft tennis, Orlando Silvoza defeated Fareeh Ibrahim of Moldova, 4-2, 1-4, 4-0, 7-5, 4-2, but dropped a close 3-5, 1-4, 4-1, 5-3, 1-4, 4-1, 1-7 decision to Chinese Xiong Jun. The rest of the soft tennis squad went down in defeat. Petrona Bantay was swept by Chinese Jiang Ting, 2-4, 0-4, 6-8, 3-5, while Michael John Enriquez yielded to Japanese Hidenori Shinohara, 0-4, 0-4, 1-4, 1-4.