Saludar hands Phl's 3rd gold; Annie falls

GUANGZHOU – Rey Saludar fought bravely and well in a savage exchange from the opening bell and crushed the greatest wall, China’s Chang Yong, on his way to a glittering gold in the XVI Asian Games last night.

It came after the Chinese led, 1-0, in the first round, and although Saludar went up, 10-3 sometime in the second round, he had to fend off the never-say-die Chinese to finish the match, 13-11, to claim the country’s first and last gold in boxing.

The title was worth P3 million for the 23-year-old who has blossomed into a seasoned fighter after winning the bronze medal in the 2009 SEA Games.

University of the East fighter Annie Albania also unleashed her patented fiery form that felled world championship silver medalist Kim Hye Song in the semifinal, but her effort was not enough as China’s Ren Cancan outslugged her, 7-5, to become the first woman champion of the Asian Games.

Albania’s silver and Victorio Saludar’s bronze from his semifinal loss to Birzhan Zhakypov of Kazakhstan increased the country’s gold-silver-bronze medal tally to 3-3-9, good for 17th among 45 countries.

It trailed Southeast Asian rivals Malaysia at seventh (9-17-12), Thailand at 10th (9-7-31), Indonesia at 13th (4-9-12) and Singapore at 14th (4-7-6).

It is ahead of Vietnam at 22nd (1-17-14), and Myanmar at 27th (0-5-3).

The national team of young and aging chess players downed the young super-GMs of India in the semifinals, 2.5-1.5, and advanced to the final against China.

Another surprise win, similar to their amazing fifth round and semifinal round conquests of the Indian team, will hand the Philippines its fourth gold overall, matching the output of the 2006 contingent.

With only a day left in the calendar of Team Philippines, the performance of the national chessers will determine the final overall medal tally as athletes in gymnastics, diving, sepak takraw, athletics, karatedo and wrestling went down fighting.

Southeast Asian Games silver medalist Niño Carog scored 355 and finished 10th in the men’s springboard preliminary and advanced to last night’s finals where Chinese Che Chong and Luo Yutong led the group with 468.50 and 467.95.

Carog, fifth placer in Doha, Qatar, did the back 2 1/2 somersault with a high 3.0 degree of difficulty.

He had three forward dives in a pike position, one with a 2 1/2 somersault, the second with 3 1/2 somersault and the third, with a 2 1/2 somersault and two twists with a 3.4 degree of difficulty while the fourth was an inward dive with 2 1/2 somersault.

Japan, which has won 21 of 46 gold medals since karatedo was included in the last four editions of the Asian Games dominated anew the competitions.

Southeast Asian Games champion Marna Pabillore, who had to take a rest the other day to recover from the flu, tied Vathana Gopalasamy of Malaysia at the end of the first round but won it on a referee’s decision based on her more aggressive stance and advanced to the quarterfinal.

Pabillore, who is also the Laos SEA Games gold medalist, disposed of Ramil Eshmabetova, 4-0, and reached the semifinal round where she was subdued by Asian and world champion Miki Kobayashi of Japan.

Kobayashi also succumbed to Vietnam’s Le Bich Phong, in the final match.

The succession of matches eventually took their toll on the ill-stricken Pabillore, who also lost to Fatemeh Chalaki of Iran, 1-0, in the repechage and missed the bronze.

Rolando Lagman left as early as the Round of 16 after absorbing a 3-0 defeat from Suflan Malayeen of Jordan.

Maribel Jambora, lacking international experience, went in defeat to Chov Sothereaof Cambodia, 3-0, in the first round of the women’s freestyle 48 kg in wrestling.

Sepak takraw got into the Asian Games for the second time with the Philippines facing Korea in the preliminary Group A match.