Team RP off-target in SEAG shootout

VIENTIANE, Laos – The Filipino shooters faltered on various disciplines of shooting, failing to land a single medal after two days of competition in the shooting events of the 25th Southeast Asian Games at the National Sports Complex yesterday.

Emerito Concepcion was the best finisher among the Filipino bets with a fourth place finish in the 10m air rifle event with 683.8 points behind gold-silver-bronze medalists Zhang Jin of Singapore (690.6), Jonathan Koh Tien Wei also of Singapore (690.6) and Thai Majchachoop (688.4).

The women’s air pistol team placed sixth with an aggregate of 1011 points on the 368 of 15-year-old Shanin Gonzales, 363 of Ruth Ricardo and 360 of 18-year-old Michaella Nicole Padilla, daughter of national shooter Tac Padilla.

“The girls were simply overwhelmed,” said team manager Reuben Hermoso said. “They lost to a better team, but these girls showed they have what it takes to compete against older shooters from other countries. They showed their competitive spirits against their seniors.”

 “That’s the highest we achieved. I was also surprised,” Hermoso said. “But it’s okay. Those losses were part of our program. We’ll just work hard for 2011.”

Thailand took the gold in the 10m air pistol (60 shots) over Vietnam and Malaysia and the women’s 50m rifle prone position over Indonesia and Malaysia.

Indonesia gained the gold in the individual event.

In the individual 25m standard pistol, Thai Bawudre Prakorn won the gold with 567 points, while Gai Bin of Singapore had 567.4 for the silver and Pham Cao of Vietnam 564 for the bronze.

Together with Ronald Hejastro and Robert Donalvo, the elder Padilla fell short of winning the bronze medal as he fired only 554 of the team’s 1630 total points in the men’s competition Thursday.

And as expected, another Thai troika took home the gold, hitting 1677 points to outclass silver medalist Vietnam (1669) and Singapore (1668).

The national shooters have one more chance in the 50m rifle prone team category Saturday when the trio of Edwin Fernandez, Eddie Thomas and Rocky Pardilla will try to avenge the losses of their teammates.