No end in sight for RP Youth woes

SINGAPORE – The Philippines dropped another close duel in basketball, losing steam and fire in the closing seconds and yielding a 25-27 decision to Spain to move to the brink of elimination in the 3-on-3 competitions of the first Youth Olympic Games at the Scape Youth Space courts here yesterday.

Later in the day, Patricia Llena wound up fifth in the girls’ 63-kg division in weightlifting at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall.

Llena turned in impressive lifts in the snatch but faltered in the clean and jerk as she failed in her second attempt at 100kg after clearing 95kg.

It was the second straight defeat for the RP dribblers, who also bowed to the Virgin Islands side, 28-34, Monday and would need to pray for a sweep of Virgin Islands (2-0) last two games over fancied Croatia (2-0) and Spain (2-1) and hope to win their last two over Croatia and South Africa (0-3) to force a three-way tie for second in Group D.

The top two teams in each of the five-team four groups will advance to the quarters.

Late Monday night, Jeson Patrombon absorbed another close setback in tennis, this time in partnership with Yuki Bhambri of India, as they lost to No. 3 seed pair of Dzumur of Bosnia and Mate Pavic of Croatia, 6-7 (7-4), 7-5, 7-6 (10-5).

The losses came after Patrombon was booted out of the singles competition in Sunday’s opener and taekwondo jin Kirk Barbosa dropped a close 7-8 decision to Gili Haimovitz of Israel, who went on to bag the gold in the -48kg division.

Swimmer Jessie Lacuna finished eighth and last in the 200m free finals while Jasmine Alkhaldi missed the finals of the 100m free, finishing 12th in a field of 16.

Still, RP chief of mission Mark Joseph sees some positive things for RP athletes despite the rash of setbacks in various fronts, especially for the national swimmers.

“It’s a distinction to have swimmers come back in the evening finals,” said

Joseph, referring to Lacuna’s feat of reaching the 200m free finals, becoming the first Filipino in 50 years to do so in an Olympic event. “It’s a great feeling but leads one to ask many questions.”

He said the PASA (Philippine Amateur Swimming Association) now earned the right to stop just thinking about qualifying to the Games but about winning in them.

“I carry the ‘how to do it’ question on my shoulders good as a pretty heavy burden. But I believe that in our next PASA national congress in November when I put this challenge to the whole swimming community, we will step up united to the challenge,” he said.

Meanwhile, Alkhaldi sees action again today as she competes in Heat 5 of the 200m free before winding up her campaign in the 50m free on Thursday at the Singapore Sports School.

Lacuna, on the other, vies in one more event, the 200m fly on Friday.