Pinoy rowers finish 3rd in 3,000m race

HAIYANG, China – After two silver medal finishes, the Philippine dragon boat crew settled for bronze in the 3,000-meter event at the Jiulong Lake to emerge the second best overall in the third Asian Beach Games here yesterday.

Indonesia completed a golden sweep with an impressive 13:59.411 to beat Thailand’s 14:01.553 and Phl’s 14:07.482.  

The Philippines earlier won the silver medals in the 200m and 500m races both ruled by Indonesia.

Thailand, completing the domination of Southeast Asian countries, was third overall with a silver and bronze medals and host China was fourth with a lone bronze while Japan, Hong Kong, Macau and Vietnam failed to win a medal.

“We will make the necessary adjustments and expect us to be better in the next two months. We will be back,” said head coach Len Escollante, looking forward to the International Canoe Federation-organized World Championships in Milan, Italy immediately after the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Also winning a bronze was the women 3-on-3 basketball team, which upended Mongolia in a 16-15 thriller where the margin came from Merenciana Arayi’s free throw in the final 3.1 seconds.

Reeling from a loss to host China last Monday, the Filipinas matched the solid outside shooting of Mongolia with decisive incursions to finish off their rivals.

The performance, which was highlighted by the win against Thailand earlier in the mini-Southeast Asian Games championship return bout, was a shade lower than the silver medal finish of Phl’s men’s team in Bali. The gold is still being disputed by China and India at press time.

“These results mark a new beginning for the discipline of dragon boat and validate the quality of support the sport obtains from the POC. It should excite our countrymen not only because our new crew went three-for-three but more importantly the marked improvement in the times submitted in the sprint and middle distance races are clearly world-class,” said chef de mission Dr. Chippy Espiritu.

Espiritu was also elated that all the four squads built around 37 athletes, including developmental disciplines handball and sport climbing all performed according to expectations.

All three male and one female entries in the extremely demanding discipline of sport climbing did creditably well reaching the semis before falling by the wayside in the face of powerhouse Japan and Korea’s surge for the final round of six.

Highest-ranking of the three males in the bouldering event semis field of 25 was no. 16 Jonathan Feleo while Dennis Oliver Diaz was 17 and Jason Sauco 18.  Milky Mae Tejares, could not rise from 17th position in the distaff side clearly dominated by China and Indonesia.

The four try anew in the much tougher lead event on Wednesday.  

“We are happy that we were right on target in this campaign and there were no excesses in terms of resources and manpower,” Espiritu added.

Handball, which was eliminated in the early goings, is the last to exit as it still has to go through the consolation round that ends Friday, a day before the closing ceremonies on Saturday.