RP archers bag 4 golds in SEA tilt

Ranged against their Southeast Asian counterparts, Filipino archers finally delivered yesterday, winning four gold, two silver and four bronze medals in the 2008 Southeast Asian Archery Championship at the Ateneo grounds.

Earl Benjamin Yap, who won a silver medal in the Asian Grand Prix that ended last Thursday at the same venue, and Ian Wayne Larsen, led the RP romp by ruling the men’s compound and men’s recurve divisions, respectively.

Veteran Rachelle Cabral topped the women’s recurve while Jennifer Chan, also a silver winner in the Asian Grand Prix, accounted for the team’s fourth gold by topping the women’s compound qualification round.

The two-day tourney ends today with four more gold medals up for grabs in the team competition of the compound and recurve divisions.

Bouncing back from his defeat to an Iranian archer in the Asian Grand Prix, Yap came up with 117 points in the gold medal match to turn back Yu Min Swe of Myanmar, who had 112, while Thanh Tuan Nguyen beat Filipino Rosendo Sombrio 114-110 for the bronze.

Ranged against Trong Ken Dao of Vietnam, Larsen emerged victorious with 110 points, handily beating the Vietnamese by 10. Denchai Thepna of Thailand (107) defeated the Philippines’ Flornate Matan (100) for the bronze.

Cabral, who helped the RP women’s recurve team win the gold in the Vietnam SEA Games in 2005, shot 105 points to bag the gold at the expense of Erwina Safitri of Indonesia who had 100 points. Vanessa Loh of Singapore scored 91 to beat Tran My Nguyen of Vietnam (87) in their bronze medal match.

Safitri went into the shootout for the title already assured of a gold medal by topping the qualification round, where the 23-year-old Cabral finished third for a bronze.

“I was already assured of a medal kaya wala nang pressure. I was more of excited than pressured. Halos pareho ang practice and competition. Ang difference lang the pressure that comes with it,” said Cabral.

After topping the qualification round, Chan set up a gold medal showdown with Myanmar’s Aung Ngeain and the two initially wound up tied 115-all. Chan, however, failed to hit the bulls eye in the shoot-off, enabling Aung to win the gold 10-9.

Also winning medals for the Philippines were Jorge Vargas and Enrique Cojuangco who finished second and third, respectively, in the qualification round of the men’s compound event.

Rookie Kristina Bismark of Gandiva Sports showed her potential when she bagged two bronze medals in the women’s compound, finishing third in the qualifying and Olympic rounds.

“Pinaghirapan ko talaga ito. I wanted to prove myself,” said the 20-year-old archer.