Alkhaldi leaves Phl dwindling ranks

LONDON – One more Filipino was swept away into the dustbin of Olympic history, leaving only six to carry on the campaign for the country’s first medal barely four days into the 19-day biennial Games Wednesday.

Jasmine Alkhaldi finished 38th of 40 participants in her first and only event – the 100m freestyle – in the morning heats at the Aquatic Pools inside the Olympic Park here.

The 19-year-old Alkhaldi, trained at the national training center at the TRACE College in Laguna, clocked 57.13 seconds, fifth best among eight starters in the third heat where Singapore’s Mylene Ong clocked 56.33 for fourth.

The time was slower than her submitted personal best of 56.92 seconds, good for 33rd among 42 entries.

Gone before her was Jessie King Lacuna, who also failed to match his time of 1:52.23 in the 200m freestyle. He finished 36th among 40 starters.

Nineteen-year-old Tang Yi of China topped the heats overall with a time of 53.28 seconds, a shade slower than the Olympic record of 53.12 by Steffen Britta of Germany in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Britta, now 29, barely made the semis with a time of 54.42.

Alkhaldi is over two seconds short of the slowest time (54.60) for a slot in the 16-woman semifinals

Mark Javier, whose score of 649 ranked him 55th in the classification round, was fighting it out with 10th-ranked and world No. 1 Brady Ellison of the US at the Lord’s Cricket Ground at presstime.

Also still alive and running are five hopefuls led by light flyweight fighter Mark Anthony Barriga, so far the only Filipino to go beyond the first round.

Barriga, 19, gave a first-hand demonstration of his skills and strength with a 17-7 mastery of Italian Manuel Cappai in the round of 32 at the Excel-Arena of the Olympic Park.

The lopsided victory has given him a huge psychological advantage over his next opponent, BIrshan Zakhypov, who took a controversial 18-17 victory over French entry Jeremy Beccu.

Miguel Caluag is also being tipped to gain a medal for the Philippines, but he will first have to make the six-man finals out of 32 entries on Aug. 8.

His international achievements, including winning the honor as four-time BMX national rider of the US, has made him one of the cyclists to watch in the event which, like him, is making a debut in the Olympics.

Marestella Torres, the two-time Southeast Asian Games long jump champion, also hopes to make the 12-woman cut for the finals among 40 entries when she makes her appearance in the event at the Olympic stadium on Aug. 8.

If she makes the standard jump for A athletes at 6.75meters, she will have a big chance of advancing to the finals on Aug. 11 on the penultimate playing day of the Games.

Her personal best of 6.71 is a SEA Games record which she failed to match during the last 12 months.

Judoka Hoshino Tohimo, also in his first Olympics, will try to hold his own against the veterans and his baptism of fire starts with Korean Kim Sung in the +100 category of the judo competitions on Friday at the Excel North Arena 2.