Back to hard times for Phl bets

GUANGZHOU – Charly Suarez found Daniyar Tulegenov of Kazakshtan a hard nut to crack and bowed out of the men’s 56kg class of boxing with a 7-1 loss in a disastrous start for the fancied team and a Philippine contingent still reeling in defeat in various battlefields here yesterday.

The tall Uzbek proved effective with his counter-punch from which he piled points after a 1-0 first round lead.

“There are punches the referees should not have scored for the opponent and points they should have given to our boy but that’s the way it is,” said team manager Ed Picson.

“We thought we had given them all they needed in training, pero nanggigil (he was over-eager) and the Kazakh took advantage of that,” he added.

“There are things to be learned and this is one of them. We know we can bounce back and advance to the higher levels in succeeding bouts,” Picson said.

The loss capped a day of disasters by the Philippines in all sports, from the martial arts of judo and wushu to the shooting range at Aoti Sports Center to the swimming pool and bowling halls, where only a day earlier Biboy Rivera claimed the first gold for the Philippine camp.

The bowling team failed where Rivera succeeded in the men’s division as it finished outside the top 10 in women’s singles won by Korean Sun Ok Hwang (1395), with Singapore placing second and third.

Liza Clutario was 17th with 1186 while Marianne Posadas had 1183, Kimberly Mae Posadas 1166, Liza del Rosariio 1157 and Liza Clutario 1101.

Teenage shooter Alyanna Chuatoco was far off the standard anew, finishing 43rd among 44 entries in the women’s 25m pistol.

The national swimmers also floundered anew in the pool, missing the finals in the men’s 400m freestyle, and women’s 50m freestyle and 100m backstroke.

Jessie Lacuna was 14th in the heats, 13.30 seconds behind the fastest time with a clocking of 4:06.38. Ryan Arabejo did better, placing 11th in 4:03.36.

Jasmine Alkhaldi was 12th in the 50m freestyle (26.75) while Charles Walker was 18th in the 100m backstroke (59.57).

The 4x100m freestyle relay team advanced to the finals where it placed seventh, 10.56 seconds behind China, which beat Japan again in a showdown for the gold.

In judo, Nancy Quillotes failed to advance in the under 48 kg category after she lost by superiority to Devi Tombi of India in three minutes, 26 seconds.

Fil-Japanese Tomohiko Hoshino also lost by superiority to Kurbanov Utkir of Uzbekistan 1:25 gone in the game.

Maritess Bitbit, the top cycling bet who was denied participation in the Laos SEA Games following leadership dispute in the association, avoided the two spills that dropped top entries from China, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Korea but that did not help her cause any as she finished seventh in the women’s points race, an 80-lap (20 Km) race with eight sprints in between.

Bitbit topped one sprint, the seventh, for five points but that was after the top three have already secured their positions.

Chinese Liu Xin took gold, Wong Wan Yu of Hong Kong took the silver and Thai Nontasin Chanpeng got the bronze.

In the men’s side, George Oconer finished 25th without a point.

In chess, top player GM Wesley So bowed to Indian rivals and wound up 14th with five points while GM Joey Antonio finished slightly better at 13th with 5.5 points.

Uzbekistan’s Kasimdzhanov Rustan bagged the gold with 7.5 points, nipping top seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam in the tiebreak.

Wushu bet Daniel parantac was 13th with 9.26 in the men’s taijiquan/taijijian all-around event won by Wu Jian of China (9.9), Nguyen Thanh Tung of Vietnam (9.67) andHsiao Yung Jih of Taipeh (9.65).The soft tennis team bowed out in the first round in men’s and women’s singles.