GUANGZHOU – The last strands of hope for a gold medal vanished into the autumn air as the snooker 6-Red team bowed early, the judokas failed in their march to the medal rounds and the swimmers gasped for air under the swirl of waves from record holders on the second day of the Asian Games here yesterday.
Sport by sport, hour after hour, delegation officials from the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission hopped from one venue to another only to exit as quickly as they entered following the immediate ouster of the Filipino bets.
The 6-Red snooker team of Mary Ann Basas, Floriza Andal and Zomenette Oryan, tipped by billiards president Bong Ilagan to whip up a gold medal surprise, went home as early as the quarterfinals when China handed them a devastating 50-0, 39-15, 42-14 loss rendering the last two of the five-game series – two reverse singles – non-bearing.
The organizers earlier ordered a rematch of their Saturday night encounter when the Chinese team called their attention to a wrong doubles pairing by the Filipinas in the fifth and deciding match.
The match was ordered replayed from the start, and the Chinese showed they would not be denied their entry to the finals as Bi Zhuging blanked Basas and Chen Siming routed Andal in the first two singles.
Siming and sister Xue teamed up to crush Basas and Oryan to cap the victory and advance to the semifinals against Thailand.
Aging billiards king Efren “Bata” Reyes, trying to pull back the clock, added to the Filipinos’ woes a day earlier when he and Renato Grandea dropped out of the 8-ball competitions in the first round and Rey Grandea followed suit in English billiards.
Alvin Barbero and Marlon Manalo also lost in opening round of the men’s snooker event.
The last golden hopes of the Filipinos in the sport now lie on former world 10-ball champion Rubilen Amit in the women’s 8-ball competitions being played late last night.
The swimming team again failed miserably.
Jessie Khing Lacuna was fifth among eight in the 200m freestyle heats and did not start in the 100m butterfly heats.
Totten was last in a group of five, 6.7 seconds behind all-conquering Chinese mermaid Li Xuanxu, who clocked 4:45.42 in the 4X100 individual medley.
In sailing, double-handed dingy 470 racers Emerson Villena and Lester Troy Tayong placed fifth among seven competitors in the event ruled by Japan’s Ryunosuke Harada and Yugo Yoshida, while Eneric Moreno settled for sixth among 10 in men’s RSX.
The once-fancied wushu bets were nowhere among the players to watch. Wushu secretary-general Julian Camacho, infuriated over the no-show of top bet Denver Labrador, ordered his ward to take the next available flight to Manila.
Camacho will ask Labrador, the Philippines’ entry in the 60kg in sanshou (combat), to explain why he had to use as an excuse an ingrown toe nail which had healed before they came to the Games. He received earlier reports that Labrador was overweight for his event.
Mark Lloren Manosca was 45th among 50 in men’s 10 meter air pistol while Alyana Kystle Chuatoco was 44th among 52 in the qualifying stage of the distaff group.
Judoka Karen Ann Solomon had a fine start in beating Libya’s Louize Bourached in the 70 kgs. division but successive losses to Korea’s Hwang Ye Sul and Mongolia’s Tsend Ayush Naranjargal in the repechage booted her out of the medal race.
Tested to the limit, 46-year-old John Baylon couldn’t get a good grip and lost to world number one Kim Jae Bum of Korea in the 81 kgs. class, but the counrtry’s most enduring athlete, winner of eight straight gold medals in the SEA Games, is not retiring.
“I am 46 years old now. I am not very sure whether I will compete in London 2012. It will depend, but I don’t plan to retire yet,”said Baylon.
In another heart-breaker, Apryl Eppinger finished a notch shy in the qualifying run of women’s sprint in cycling (track).
In rowing, Alvin Amposta and Roque Abala failed in heat two of rowing, finishing fourth among six with 6:55.36, way off leader Sun Zhang and Jie Guolin of China (6:27.81).