17th Asian Games: Gilas perks up slow-starting Filipino bets

INCHEON – The Philippine camp celebrated the arrival of the national basketball cagers of World Cup fame on whom hopes of a gold medal now hinge following a slow start to Team Pilipinas campaign in various disciplines yesterday on the first day of conflagration in the 17th Asian Games.

All 12 members of Smart Gilas, led by national coach Chot Reyes, arrived in one piece aboard a Philippine Airlines flight from the flooded streets of Manila to begin their three-day warm-up for the Sept. 23 second round match against a Group B winner still to be determined from the ongoing preliminaries among eight unseeded teams.

Their arrival has become a source of inspiration from the 157-member Philippine contingent whose first batch of entries struggled vainly in the final of weightlifting and in the preliminaries of shooting and rowing.

The only bright side in the Filipinos’ darkest hour was the first round win of the tennis team in the men’s team event and the much-touted wushu artists in the sanda (sparring) events of wushu.

The trio of Patrick John Tierro, Ruben Gonzales and Treat Conrad Huey clobbered their rivals from Mongolia in the men’s team event to advance to the next round.

Wushu experts Jean Claude Saclag and Myanmar Southeast Asian Games silver medalist Divine Wally kept their secret weapons off the prying eyes of prospective rivals for the crown, putting a fighting stance just enough to send them to the next round of the sanda events of wushu competitions yesterday at the Ganhwa Dolens Gymnasium.

Saclag, the world bronze medalist of the famed Team Lakay of the Cordilleras, and Wally, the Myanmar Southeast Asian Games silver medalist, disposed of their foes in the sanda (sparring) division to advance against tougher rivals in the quarterfinals.

Saclag disposed of Myanmar’s Kyaw Lin Tun, 2-0 with takedowns in the first and second round of the -60 kg event five days before his 20th birthday while Wally dispensed with Chao Hy of Hong Kong, 2-0, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the -60kg women’s event.

“Our bets did not go all out for the win. They didn’t show their secret weapons because their rivals are watching,” said wusu secretary general Julian Camacho.

Wally is to fight Kim H of Korea in the quarterfinals while Saclag will fight either a rival from Indonesia or Yemen.

Nestor Colonia, tipped to win a medal, could hardly lift the initial weight of 120 kilos on his first try in the snatch portion of the 56 kg final of the weightlifting competition and decided not to go on with the second and third attempts, abandong hopes of giving the Philippines its first medal in the Games here along with the chance to qualify for the Rio de Jainero Olympics in 2016.

Colonia, 23, watched from back stage as Vietnamese champion Kim Tuan Thach broke the Asian record with 134 kgs in the snatch and paired it with a 160 in the clean and jerk for a front-running 290 total in the qualifiers.

Veteran Benjamin Tolentino will figure in the repechage today to determine his chances in the lightweight men’s singles sculls of rowing.

Tolentino checked in at seven minutes, 37.05 seconds which was good for fourth behind finalists Kwan Hoi Lok of Hong Kong (7:17.78) and Cholhun Pak of Pakistan (7:24.30).

Tolentino will be up against third placed Artyom Kurdyashov of Uzbekistan and Lihn van Nguyen of Vietnam to determine his qualification for the final round.

Badreddin Almabruk Mohammad Almadani of Qatar was excluded.

The pair of Edgar Ilas and Nestor Cordova were also relegated to the repechage of the lightweight men’s doubles sculls, placing third behind Japanese pair Takahiro Suda and Hideki Omoto and the Indian tandem of Roonpedra Singh and Manjeet Singh.

Ilas and Cordova will also fight for their places against the tandems of Arief Arief and Thomas Hallatu (Indonesia) and Tanveer Arif and Muhammad Maood of Pakistan.

Shooters Hagen Alexander Topacio and Eric Ang also need to catch up with the leaders after Day 1 of the men’s trap competition.

Andrey Mogilevskiy of Kazakhstan and Mohammad Aldeehani Fehaid of Kuwait are on top after three rounds with 74s, followed by the bunch of 72s from Hamad Ahmad Bin Alkendi of UAE, Manajavit Singh Sandhu of India, Alfaihan Abdulrahman of Kuwait, Du Yu of China and Walid El Najjar of Lebanon from third to seventh places.

Topacio was at far 33rd place with two rounds left today. He had a 65 on rounds of 22, 21 and 22.

Ang was even farther at 40th place with 63 on rounds of three 21s.

Gilbert Ramirez tries to advance into the quarterfinals against Dastan Ykybayeb of Kazakhstan in the men’s 73-kg of judo, while women’s 63-kg entry Kiyomi Watanabe aims for the same spot against Gulnar Hayybayeva of Turkmenistan.

Jessie Lacuna aims to set a fast time in the first heat of men’s 200-m freestyle in swimming.

Clemente Tabugara battles Mohsen Mohammadseifi of Iran in the men’s Sanda -65 kgs of wushu.