Tac’s pistol fails him again

BANGKOK – Horror of all horrors, Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla had another misfortune with his gun and the Philippines stayed without a precious gold medal going into the penultimate day of the 24th Southeast Asian Games shootfest at the Thai shooting range inside the Hua Mark Sports Complex yesterday.

Padilla’s pistol, another Pardini, malfunctioned right in the opening string, dooming his bid for a medal in center fire.

From 12th place in the first string, the crack Filipino marksman could only rally for seventh with 572. Teammates Carolino Gonzales (555) and Robert Donalvo (543) finished 13th and 14th out of 17 entries.

Team Philippines went without a medal for the third straight day with Emerito Concepcion, Edwin Fernandez and Eddie Tomas doing no better in the air rifle three-position event.

Tapped on the eve of the contest to replace Rocky Pardilla, Concepcion, bronze medallist in 10m air rifle, finished ninth with 1097. Fernandez came in 10th with 1086 while Tomas was 12th and dead last with 1070.

Vietnamese Nguyen Duy Hoang (1154), Thai Majchacheep Varavut (1150) and another  Vietnamese Nguyen Tan Nam (1144) topped the qualifying round.

While his other Pardini gun jammed twice in the rapid-fire Friday, Padilla’s center-fire equipment double-shot in the first string this time, putting him into early trouble.

Not even a perfect 100 in the fifth string and a second-best dueling score of 292 could salvage a bronze medal for the Malabon businessman-sportsman.

With his trouble-marred opening 90, Padilla finished the precision stage at 10th place with 280.

Vietnamese Hoang Xxuan Vihn totaled 582 to bag the gold with Thai Parichpatikum Jakkrit taking the silver with 579. Another Vietnamese Nguyen Mmanh Tuong beat Singaporean On Shaw Min in a shoot-off for third.

The team gold medal went to Vietnam, the silver to Singapore and the bronze to Thailand. The Philippines was a far fourth.

“I just can’t understand everything that had happened. This is the first time it happened to me,” said Padilla, competing in his 15th SEA Games.

“Maybe it’s really not for me but I really felt bad yesterday (Friday in rapid-fire). It hurt because I prepared hard and there was no error on my part. The equipment failed me,” added Padilla. “The Romanian coach of the Thais observed that Pardini is good but its metals are weak. I’ve been using it only for a year baka marupok talaga.”

For a newcomer in center-fire, Gonzales did pretty good even as he encountered trouble with an ammunition.

“He had one bullet that didn’t score as he was using very old ammunitions,” said Philippine shooting official Robbie Hermoso.

Three-time gold medallist in pistol events, Gonzales joined the center-fire to complete a three-man team.

Facing the task of delivering the projected haul of three golds in the last two days are the men’s team of Paul Brian Rosario, Patricio Bernardo and Gabriel Tong and lady shooter Jacqueline de Guzman.

The Philippines is the defending champion in men’s team and individual skeet.

Rosario was focusing on the task to repeat his double-gold quest in Manila in 2005 that he begged off an interview.

His father Pol, himself a shooter and three-time SEAG veteran, said the Filipino skeet shooters were doing well in practice. The older Rosario also said the men’s trap team had just won the Southeast Asian Shooting Association championships in Malaysia.

The qualifying and the final in ladies skeet will be played today. The men shoot 75 birds today, 50 tomorrow morning and 25 in the final tomorrow afternoon.