Phl shooter bows out in 14th place

NANJING – Celdon Jude Arellano buried his face in his hands as he sat on a plastic chair and watched the rest of the competitors close out their strings at the Fangshan Shooting Hall Wednesday.

Obviously, the 16-year-old Filipino shooter was disappointed.

“Medyo masama (Not too good),” said Arellano who landed 14th out of 20 competitors in the men’s 10-meter air rifle event of the Youth Olympic Games here.

Arellano had a total of 605.0 in the qualifications and failed to reach the finals that featured the top eight shooters from around the world.

The young protégé of Filipino shooting champion Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla had strings of 96.5, 102.2, 99.9, 102.7, 103.0 and 100.7.

He was disappointed because his round was far from his best. This year alone, he did 622.0 in practice, 609.8 in Munich last June and 611.9 in Beijing last July.

It was a pity he couldn’t deliver in his biggest competition ever.

“Kulang sa conditioning (I lacked in the conditioning). Sa shooting, pag kinabahan ka, manginginig ang hita mo (Here, once you feel the pressure, your legs will shake),” he said.

Celdon finally broke into a smile.

“Pero pagbubutihin ko pa lalo. Pasensiya na po kayo (I will strive harder. I’d like to apologize),” said Arellano, who admitted feeling the jitters in his opening strings.

While he gets support from the Philippine Sports Commission under chairman Richie Garcia, Arellano thanked Padilla, a gold medalist in the 1976 World Junior Shooting Championships in Mexico, for loaning him a rifle to use in this YOG.

China’s Haoran Yang led the qualifiers with 629.4 followed by Armenia’s Hrachik Babayan (624.8), Hungary’s Istvan Peni (624.2), Taipei’s Shao-Chuan Lu (623.5) and Serbia’s Andrija Milovanovic (615.4).

Yang eventually bagged the gold with a score of 209.3 in the finals. Babayan took the silver with 204.3 while Peni was happy with the bronze after shooting 183.5.

Arellano can console himself with the fact finishing behind him were shooters from Turkey, Russia, Finland, Argentina, Austria and Bhutan.

His coach, Julius Valdez, can’t blame the young shooter.

“Siguro kinabahan. Bata pa eh (Maybe he got nervous. He’s still young),” said the coach.

“That’s not his normal score in practice. But that’s how it goes. In sports, there are losers and there are winners. He’s still young. He still has a chance,” Valdez added.

Philippine team chef-de-mission Jonne Go watched the competition from the sidelines and later on said it was a pity that Arellano failed to advance.

Arellano came here ranked 16th in the world and now he’s at No. 14.

“He went two notches higher although his score wasn’t too impressive,” said Valdez.

“Most of the competitors here are 18 years old. And Celdon is just sixteen. If given all the needed support he can still get better,” said the chef-de-mission.

Now out of contention, Arellano joins triathlete Vicky Deldio and swimmer Roxanne Yu in the sidelines.

Gymnast Ava Lorein Verdeflor was scheduled to see action in the all-around and uneven bar finals at 7 p.m. Wednesday and track bet Zion Rose Nelson in the qualifying heats of the women’s 400 meters at 8 p.m.

Two other Pinoys, archers Bianca Roxas-Chua Gotuaco and Gabriel Luis Moreno, have yet to see action. They make their debut on Friday at the Fangshan archery range.