Divers, wushu artists, fencers cap Pinoys stint

DOHA - Divers Jaime Asok and Rexel Fabriga, the men’s fencing team and wushu artists Rene Catalan, Willy Wang and possibly Eduard Folayang will be the last Filipinos to compete in the final day of the Asian Games here Thursday.

Catalan, the SEA Games gold medalist, goes up for the gold against Vietnamese Phan Quoc Vinh in the sanshou under 52-kg category. Folayang was set to fight Iran’s Khosrow Minoo in the semifinals of -70kg class late last night.

The two-week long Games, which gathers the best and the brightest athletes in this side of the continent, will officially end Friday with the closing ceremony but hostilities in the remaining battlefields will all end Thursday.

Wang, meanwhile, competes against 19 others in the men’s nanquan 3 events combined nangun (Southern style cudgel) at the Aspire Hall 3.

Asok and Fabriga resume their bid for a medal in diving as they compete in the 10m men’s platform prelims at the Hamad Aquatic Centre. The duo finished fourth and out of the medal race in the synchro 10m platform Tuesday.

Over at the Al-Arabi Indoor Hall, fencers Avelino Victorino Jr., Wilfredo Vizcayno Jr. and Almario Vizcayno take on the Bahrain squad at 1:05 p.m. (6:05 p.m. in Manila) in a round of 16 match in the men’s team epee, hoping to crash into the quarterfinal round for a shot at the medal round. — Dante Navarro