Bowler's gold fuels Philippine hope

GUANGZHOU – National bowler Biboy Rivera provided the breakthrough gold and the inspiration the Philippine team needed as he claimed the country’s first Asian Games gold after a six-hour wait yesterday at the Tianhe Bowling Hall here.

“This is the first gold for the country, so we are very happy,” said Rivera, the only veteran bowler in a team composed of new finds, moments after the raising of the national flag for his gold in the men’s singles in bowling.

The 36-year-old veteran led the first group with a final score of 1404 but had to wait for six hours for the outcome of the afternoon competition, up to the last frame when his rival, Kuwaiti Mohd. Alrgebaah collapsed, before he and the bowling team could make a celebration.

“We got gold in our first event (in bowling), that’s a good sign for the team,” said Rivera. “We have also good chances in the women’s singles tomorrow (Tuesday).”

Fellow Filipinos Chester King (1200) and Benshir Layoso (1193) were 34th and 35th while Jose Collin was 43rd with 1109.

The national tankers finally swam to the medal round where they placed fourth, Hidilyn Diaz topped her group in the finals but finished sixth overall in the Philippine contingent’s decent performance outside the gold-medal win of Rivera.

Jessie Khing Lacuna and the US-based trio of Charles William Walker, Ryan Arabejo and Miguel Molina swam the 4x200 meter freestyle relay in seven minutes, 30.76 seconds to finish fourth behind China (7:07.30) which prevailed in its anticipated showdown with Japan (7:10.39). Korea came in third in 7:24.14.

The men’s team qualified on the strength of its fifth place overall in the morning heats with a time of 7:33.29, 17.95 seconds behind leader Japan (7:15.57).

It was nevertheless a good showing for the national swimmers who earlier failed to go beyond the morning heats in all individual events during the first two days.

Diaz topped Group B with a lift of 209 from the snatch (94) and clean and jerk (115), but when the overall results appeared, she was sixth overall behind Li Xueying (238) and Koreans Pak Hyon Suk (232) and Jong Chun Mi (232).

Daniel Coakley, the fastest swimmer in Southeast Asia, remained the fastest in the region with a time 23.82 in the morning heats but his effort this time was good only for 16th place.

The Fil-American from Hawaii could have also easily made it to the finals and probably finish with the silver medal, the first for the Philippines in swimming in 22 years, with his SEAG record time of 22.80 seconds.

Erica Totten, the busiest Filipino swimmer who has already swum in five events, was a notch short of gaining a place in the finals.

Her time in the heat of the 200m butterfly (23:16.54) was good for ninth place overall, 7.38 seconds behind Jiao Liuyang of China (2:09.16).

At the Aoti shooting range, Jason Valdez was 53rd among 54 starters with a score of 556, a good 40 points behind the near perfect mark of 596 of 25-year-old world no. 6 Kim Jonghyun of Korea.

In the women’s 50m rifle prone position. Charise Palma also finished second to the last at 49th place with her score of 564.

Wang Chengyi, the bronze medalist in Beijing and individual and team gold medal winner in Doha, Qatar retained her time with a score of 595.