Pinoys upbeat in fight for 4th

KUALA LUMPUR (Via Globe Telecoms) — Philippine Sports Commission chairman Carlos "Butch" Tuason yesterday urged the Philippine contingent to "continue fighting for flag and country" and maintain its fourth rank in the overall standings of the 21st Southeast Asian Games here.

Shuttling back from Johore near the Singapore border where he talked to the athletes and officials, Tuason said the Filpinos’ mood is upbeat following the seven-gold medal haul the previous day and expects them to carry on the fight in all sports going into the last two days of the biennial meet.

"We’re happy. The athletes are competing well. We have told them to continue fighting for us to maintain our fourth place," said Tuason.

Tuason was in Johore the past three days to cheer for the athletes in archery, taekwondo, judo, and pencak silat, which is making a surprise move in the first of the 19 events at stake.

"The mood there is upbeat. I am confident we’ll be able to maintain our fourth position," Tuason said.

The Filipinos had produced surprise winners in bowling where Botchok Rey established SEA Games marks in becoming the country’s first triple gold medallist — in the men’s all events, trios and team-of-five.

The big winners in the Philippine contingent came from Johore, in the south, and Penang in the north, where golds were won by the teams from taekwondo, archery, bowling, and wushu.

The big losers so far came from the venues around Kuala Lumpur where sports like shooting, weightlifting, gymnastics, swimming, cycling, lawn tennis, table tennis, sepak takraw, equestrian, and badminton took a heavy beating.

The Filipino shooters concluded their stint with one gold and five silver medals and five bronze medals. The last two bronze medals came from Jaime Recio in the individual double trap and the women’s double trap team.

Filipino weightlifters were also medalless in the last four events – 63 and 69 kg for women and the 105 kg and +105 kg for men.

In all, the lifters of weightlifting president Rodones Sicat, who was the beneficiary of an ouster move on the previous leadership, had only two bronze medals to show in 13 events. Indonesia took the overall title with 6-3-2 followed by Myanmar 4-1-0, Thailand 2-6-2 and Malaysia 1-1-3.

As a consolation, the Filipino lifters will be in the books as the new Philippine record holders since the divisions in weightlifting were changed starting this year.

Thailand, led by Tavarit Majcharcheep who scored a perfect 600 in last year’s Southeast Asian championships, dominated the men’s and women’s air rifle, rapid fire pistol, men’s air pistol to take the overall title in the medal-rich event of shooting with a gold-silver-bronze medal tally of 13-12-6, followed by Malaysia (6-8-7), Vietnam (6-6-5), Singapore 3-2-3, Indonesia (3-2-1), Myanmar (3-1-5) and the Philippines (1-5-5).

In boxing, only two — Ramil Zambales and Arlan Lerio — advanced to the finals, reducing boxing’s three-gold medal projection. The Filipino boxers, who also had two golds in the1999 Brunei Games, face the fancied Thais for the gold Sunday.

Archer Christian Cubilla lost to Thai Prawit Poljunleed, 93-98, in the quarterfinals and bowed out of the medal round in the men’s individual archery competitions. The Filipino shuttlers are out of the medal race in the men’s and women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles in badminton and finished fourth in the men’s and women’s 1.5km downhill event in mountain bike competitions.

The Filipinos were also out of the medal round in the individual show jumping in equestrian, men’s and women’s football, and were not entered in field hockey, net ball, synchronized swimming, and petanque.

In lawn tennis, Johnny Arcilla lost to Indonesia’s Suwandi Suwandi, 6-3, 6-0, and Joseph Victorino to Thai Danai Udomche, 6-3, 6-0, in the men’s quarterfinals while the mixed doubles team of Joseph Lizardo and Kara de Guzman bowed out in the first round to Truang Quoc Bao and Nguyen Thi Kim of Vietnam.