All quiet on RP front; 4 athletes standing

BEIJING – Time stood still in the Philippine camp as the last four men and women standing went about their quiet preparations to salvage whatever is left of the country’s pride in the XXIX Olympic Games.

With 11 of the 15-member Philippine delegation having left for Manila or the US or extending their stay for the closing ceremonies, the Philippine camp now goes through its shortlist of four athletes – taekwondo jins Tshomlee Go and Mary Antoinette Rivero, diver Rexel Ryan Fabriga and long jumper Marestella Torres.

Yesterday’s program should have included Philippine results in the finals of the women’s 3m springboard diving and the women’s 50m freestyle and men’s 1,500m freestyle in swimming.

But Sheila Mae Perez, hoping at least to make today’s 12-woman finals in diving, was out of it after the first round Friday.

Christel Simms and Ryan Arabejo ripped their swimsuits – Simms before she bended at the start of the 50m freestyle, and Arabejo on his way to the pool – and failed to rip their own Philippine marks.

The swimming show belonged to the Americans, notably Michael Phelps who capped his quest for a record eight-gold medal haul with the US Team’s win in the 4x100 medley relay.

The powerful squad, also featuring Aaron Peirsol, Branden Hansen and Jason Lezak, assured Phelps’ honored place in history by winning the event over Australia in a new world record time of 3:29.34.

Simms, at 17 being groomed for the 2012 London Olympics, will have four years to improve on her record of 26.31 seconds to match the new Olympic record (24.06) of gold medal winner Brittan Steffen of Germany.

Arabejo bowed out with a time 15:42.27 in the 1,500 meters. At least he gets the consolation that big stars also fall as Grant Hackett, one of the greatest long distance swimmers of all time and bidding for a historic third gold, finished only second to Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia.

Henry Dagmil was the last to take the exit when he finished 18th in the long jump preliminaries Saturday at the Bird’s Nest.

Awed by the sheer power of the strongest men of the world and the roar of a full-packed crowd of over 90,000, the 27-year-old two-time Southeast Asian gold medalist managed only 7.58m on the long jump event and didn’t make the 12-man.

His effort was below his personal best of 7.87m he established in last year’s SEAG in Nakhom Ratchasima.

MarestellaTorres, also a wild card entry, will try to do better than her personal best of 6.63 meters she established in the 2005 SEA Games to move past the preliminaries tomorrow.

Go and Rivero, the only athletes with a realistic chance of winning a medal, will go for it on Aug. 20 and 22, respectively, when they close out the Philippine campaign.