Rivero, Fabriga last bets standing

BEIJING  – With  13th man Tshomlee Go falling like the rest of them, a jin and a diver are the only athletes standing in the 15-member Phililppine contingent to the XXIX Beijing Olympic Games.

Taekwondo jin Mary Antoinette Rivero and diver Ryan Rexel Fabriga will try to avert a third Olympic drought when they see action in their respective events tomorrow at the close of the Philippine schedule in the quadrennial meet.

Rivero aims to make up for the failed campaign of teammate Go when she trades blows with Sandra Saric of Croatia in the round of 16 of the welterweight division in takewondo at the Beijing University of Science and Technology.

She went into light training as scheduled yesterday while Go was fighting Australian Ryan Carneli in the first round, and will resume light workouts behind closed doors today in her final runup to the competitions.

Fabriga will be up against the world class Chinese divers when he steps on the diving platform 10 meters up above the water in the men’s individual competition starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Water Cube.

The wushu team, parading a four-member squad led by world champion Willy Wang, will compete today in a special event, where the winners do not count in the gold-silver-bronze medal tally.

If the men’s  draw was cut out for Go, who is at par with his rivals in the same bracket, the women’s draw will be an uphill battle every inch of the way for Rivero who will be up against tough opponents in the first three rounds.

Rivero will meet Saric, hoping to score the breakthrough in her medal quest.

The other bumps on her way to a gold medal would be world champion Hwang Kyun-seon of Korea in the quarterfinal and twice world silver medalist Gwladys Epangue of France in the semifinal.

Fabriga, the 2005 and 2007 Southeast Asian Games champion, will have an even heavier load ahead of him as he aims to score high enough to make the 18-man semifinal from a field of 30, and, from there, join the 12-man cast in the final round.