RP’s Asiad medalists top bets in rowing

HANOI, VIETNAM (via GlobeTelecom) — Their silver medal finish in last year’s Asian Games and their bronze medal performance in the recent Asian Championships have installed Alvin Amposta and Nestor Cordova as the prohibitive favorites to row away with the gold medal in at least one event in the Southeast Asian Games rowing competitions which start today at the West Lake in Hanoi.

The duo won their medals on the tough Asian level behind China and Japan, and as far as rowing president Benjie Ramos remembers, there is nobody on the SEA Games level that can offer the Filipinos serious challenge in their event, the 2000m pair sculls in rowing.

A one-and-a-half-month training in China where they eventually won the bronze in the Asian Championships convinced rivals from Southeast Asia that the duo are a class of their own in this part of Asia.

"Nobody’s going to defeat your team in the SEA Games," conceded an Indonesian official who was with his national team in the Asian championships.

Ramos, however, will not discount a reversal from Vietnam which has sent its rowers to train also in China for 10 months.

"Vietnam has a tough rower and he’s good for the single sculls. If they enter him in the 2000 m pair against the Philippines, the contest will be close, but I doubt if they will remove him in the singles in favor of the pair event," said Ramos.

Amposta and Cordova will be entered also in the doubles of the lightweight (2000m) event, but that will depend on the schedule.

"Kung magkalapit ang dalawang event na ito, we have to sacrifice the doubles," said Ramos. "Ang mga events malimit 10 minutes lang ang interval kaya wala halos panahong makapagpahinga ang rower."

The heats in the women’s singles, lightweight men’s pairs and doubles, and men’s fours will be held today and tomorrow, with the finals set Dec. 6-7.

Others in the eight-member rowing team are Charimel Alastre, Mark Anthony Galvez and Rowell Tolentino who will be joined by Cordova in the lightweight coxless fours and Benjamin Tolentino (single sculls). The woman rowers are Emilou Babanto and Maria Fornea who will compete in the lighweight doubles and pair sculls.