INCHEON, South Korea – Archer Paul Marton dela Cruz shoots for the bull’s eye and a medal in the men’s compound event while three more boxers advanced to the next round in an inspiring performance by the national athletes going into the last half of the 17th Asian Games here yesterday.
Dela Cruz, who is competing in the compound event after failures in the recurve events in the last seven years, blasted Kumaar Sandeep of the world class Indian team, 141-135, and advanced to the semifinal against the winner in the quarterfinal matchup between Iran’s Esmaeil Ebadi and fancied Lihong Min of Korea.
Abigail Tindugan and Amaya Paz Cojuangco also advanced to the round of 16 with wins over bets from Myanmar and Laos, but they bowed to Dellie Threesuyadinda of Indonesia and Daephasouk Detrone of Laos, respectively, in the quarterfinals and bowed out of the medal race.
The Philippine compound team of Cojuangco, Tindugan and Joan Tabanag drew a bye to the quarterfinals where it lost to Chinese Taipei, 226-215.
The men’s team of Ian Patrick Chipeco, Dela Cruz and Yap topped Chinese Taipei, 229-226, in the quarterfinals but lost to powerhouse Korea in the semifinals, 215-226, and settled for the bronze. Korea advanced to the gold medal round against India.
In boxing, Olympian lighflyweight Mark Anthony Barriga, flyweight Ian Clark Bautista and middleweight Wilfredo Lopez made it a perfect win so far for the men’s team as they joined lightweight Charly Suarez and bantamweight Mario Fernandez in the round of 16. Lightwelter Dennis Galvan was to play Mongolian Baatarsukh Chinzorig late last night.
US Girls Junior champion Princess Superal fired a three-under 69 on a sunny windless day at the Dream Park Country Club and was tied for third behind the 67 of Thai Songchan Sipamas and the 68 of Lee Boyoung of Korea, Sukapan Budsabakon of Thailand, Katsu Minami of Japan and Kitty Tam of Hong Kong.
Mia Legaspi was behind at 70 while Pauline del Rosario was 11 shots off the pace at 78.
In team competition, the Philippines stood at third with 139 behind the 136 of Thailand and 138 of Korea.
Justin Rafael Quiban was the best finisher among the Filipinos in men’s individual play but his one-under 71 was five shots off the pacesetting 66 of Chinese Taipei’s Pan Cheng Tsung.
Rupert Zaragosa had a 72 and Kristoffer Arevalo a 79 which didn’t count in the four-to-play, three-to-count team competition where the Philippines had 218 for ninth place behind leaders Chinese Taipei and Korea (205).
Rowers Alvin Amposta and Roque Abala only managed eighth place in the men’s doubles sculls Final B.
Triathlete Ma. Claire Adorna, a former UAAP most outstanding swimmer who is debuting in triathlon, placed seventh on her first try at the Asian Games, clocking two hours, nine minutes and five seconds – a new Philippine record, behind gold medalist Ai Ueda of Japan who was only seven minutes and 18 seconds faster.
Her male counterpart, Nikko Bryan Huelgas, was 11th, 10 minutes and six seconds behind gold medal winner Yuichi Hosoda, also of Japan.
Veteran Frederick Ong and rookie Enrico Lorenzo Hernandez emerged as the best-placed Filipino tandem in bowling after morning play in men’s doubles at the Anyang Hogye Gymnasium. They scored 1218 and 1131 pinfalls, respectively, for a 2349 total, good for eighth place, 153 pins behind the leading Japanese duo.
Yoshida Daisuke shot 1283 pinfalls in six games while Sasaki Tomoyuki added 1219 for a combined 2502 total and the provisional lead going into the afternoon session where the tandem of former world champion Biboy Rivera and rookie Kenneth Chua were set to play.
The other Pinoy tandem of Benshir Layoso and rookie Jo Mar Jumapao placed 19th with 2169 pinfalls after the morning session.
Thailand and Chinese-Taipei took the first two gold medals up in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.
Ten more golds are at stake in doubles, trios, team of five, all events, and Masters.
In tennis, the mixed doubles tandem of Ruben Gonzales and Katharina Lehnert defeated the Nepalese pair of Anne Mathema and Dawa Sonam Sherpa, 6-0, 6-1.
Treat Huey and Denise Dy also swamped the Hong Kong pair of Wong Chun-hun and Katherine Cheng, 6-2, 6-4.
Those wins made up for the losses of Lehnert (to Japan’s Ori Hizumi, 6(4)-7(7), 5-7) and JP Tierro (to Chung Hyeon of Korea, 0-6, 3-6), in the second round of the women and men’s singles matches, respectively.