Gotuaco faces Japanese; Moreno duels No. 3 Brazilian Archers brace for KO round

NANJING – Filipino archers Bianca Roxas-Chua Gotuaco and Gabriel Luis Moreno went different ways Friday in the recurve event of the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

The two archers who got their first taste of YOG competition fired 72 arrows each from 60 meters under the hot Nanjing sun at the Fangshan Archery Field here.

The 17-year-old Gotuaco showed steady hands in scoring 642 (322-320) points, planting her arrows inside the inner 10-ring (bullseye) 10 times and the yellow ring 25 times.

With her total, Gotuaco ranked 11th out of 32 archers, and will face No. 22 Miasa Koike of Japan (618) in Saturday’s elimination round, also known as the Olympic round.  

The loser goes home.

As expected, Korea’s Gyeong Lee Eun showed the way in the women’s rankings with 681 points followed by Indonesia’s Diananda Choirunisa (673) and China’s Jiaman Li (669).

Moreno got off to a hot start with 325 points but must have lost his touch during the recess. He returned to the field shortly before noon and struggled with a 280 for 605.

That put him in 30th place and in a very difficult position at the start of the knockout stage. To make it to the round-of-16, he needs to beat No. 3 Marcus D’Almeida of Brazil who had a 683.

Gotuaco and Moreno will both see action at around 3 p.m. Saturday. If they survive, they take a break Sunday and will be back in action Monday to decide the final eight.

Leading the men’s rankings were Korea’s Woo Seok Lee (704), India’s Atul Verma (348) and D’Almeida.

Gotuaco said they could have done better.

“The scores Gab and I shot weren’t what we usually do in practice. We do better in practice,” said the student of International School Manila.

“But I’m satisfied with mine. We could have done better,” added the young archer who just won the junior women’s gold medal in the US National Target Championship in Hamilton, Ohio.

She came here armed and ready because just a few weeks ago, she also led the Philippines to a third-place finish in the Seoul International Archery Fiesta. She is also a gold medalist in the Palarong Pambansa, Batang Pinoy and Philippine National Games.

Gotuaco hoped to do better in the Olympic round.

“Starting tomorrow, losers will get eliminated,” said Philippine archery coach Marvin Cordero.

Gotuaco and Moreno were still out in the field for the mixed team event as of presstime – Gotuaco being paired with an archer from Bangladesh and Moreno with a Chinese.

Moreno tried to shake off the thoughts of his poor round.

“My second round was so bad but I still gave my best. But Bianca did good,” said the soft-spoken archer who carried the Philippine flag in last week’s opener.

Providing the support for the archers were Philippine Olympic Committee chief Jose Cojuancgo, Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richie Garcia, chef-de-mission Jonne Go and POC treasuer Julian Camacho.

Elsewhere, Ava Lorein Verdeflor, who finished 11th overall in the all-around of women’s gymnastics Thursday, will return to the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium Saturday for the uneven bars finals starting at 8:30 p.m.

Track athlete Zion Rose Nelso will also race in the 400 meters (Finals B) at around 8 p.m. after finishing fourth in her heat the other day with a time of 56.22 seconds.

Three Pinoy athletes are done competing here – triathlete Vicky Deldio, swimmer Roxanne Yu and shooter Celdon Jude Arellano.