Kayla in semis; Joanie, Kiyomi out

PARIS – After powering her way to faster times in cold, rainy conditions in previous races, rower Joanie Delgaco slowed down Tuesday under the hot Paris summer sun.

Racing fifth early on, Delgaco dropped to sixth through 1000m and spent the rest of the way behind her heavyweight rivals, slowly seeing her Olympic medal chance drown in the still waters of the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.

That’s the start of a busy day for Team Philippines in Day 4 of the Paris Games with high hopes of jolt and boost from the boxers in the afternoon and evening sessions (early Wednesday in Manila) at the North Paris Arena.

Swimmer Kayla Sanchez gained some attention as she marked her Olympic return bearing the Philippine flag with a semifinal entry in the women’s 100m freestyle. The semis was set 3:33 a.m. today.

Winner of a silver and a bronze as part of the Canadian relay team in Tokyo, Sanchez finished fourth in Heat 4 and checked in at joint 10th overall with Great Britain’s Anna Hopkin at 53.67 seconds.

Delgaco’s struggle was followed by judoka Kiyomi Watanabe once again seeing her Olympic dream vanish into thin air just in seconds.

In a painful scene, Watanabe, 27, was booted out in a quick 51-second disposal via ippon by China’s Tang Jing in their Round of 32 duel in women’s -63kg division at the Champ-de-Mars Arena.

The 27-year-old Watanabe set out for battle in the French capital hoping to erase the sad note of her Tokyo debut, where she fell prey to Cristina Cabana Perez of Spain in 38 seconds.

At least, the Fil-Japanese judoka lasted a bit longer against Tang, a three-time Asian Games podium finisher.

On Wednesday, Carlos Yulo vies in the first of his three finals in artistic gymnastics – the all events where keen eyes will be on him as he performs his pet events floor exercise and vault while Carlo Paalam and Hergie Bacyadan climb the ring for their opening bouts in chase of boxing glory.

Delgaco was out of the running for podium finish after being left in the wake of her rivals in the quarterfinals and thus dropping to races for 13th to 24th places.

“World ranking na lang,” said Philippine Rowing Association president Patrick Gregorio who’s nonetheless proud of Delgaco’s solid showing in her maiden Olympics.

“It’s a great effort by Joanie. We are proud of her,” said Gregorio of the Iriga City native who’s still in the race for among the best Asian rowers here.

Ranged against titleholder Emma Twigg of New Zealand and four European giants, Delgaco raced a lonely race on Lane 6 and finished last in 7:58.30.

Twigg zoomed to a 7:26.89 clocking followed by Swiss Aurelia-Maxima Katharina Janzen (7:31.12), Spain’s Virginia Diaz Rivas (7:34.01), Azerbaijan’s Diana Dymchenko (7:53.76) and Serbian Jovana Arsic (7:56.18).

Arsic twisted on cramps towards the end, and was nearly overtaken by Delgaco.

“Two seconds lang. She could have placed fourth. Malapit lang din siya sa Azerbaijan (rower) who placed fourth,” said Gregorio.

Asian Games gold medalist and Tokyo Olympics runner-up Anna Prakaten of Uzbekistan progressed to the A/B semifinals.

Delcago, Iranian Fatemeh Mojallaltopraghghale and Vietnamese Thi Hue Pham continue their fight for Asian honors in C/D semifinals.

Pham clocked 7:56.96 in Heat 2 while Mojallaltopraghghale finished last from among all quarterfinalists at 8:00.37 in Heat 1.