Filipinos chasing first Incheon medal

INCHEON, South Korea – While perennial leader China surged into the lead and host Korea stayed ominously close behind and Vietnam glittered with its first gold, the Philippines still groped for a medal of any color in the gathering darkness of the 17th Asian Games yesterday.

The Filipinos from lawn tennis, judo, swimming, gymnastics and shooting came home empty handed with only tales of woes to tell, and only the wushu bets will go back to the battlegrounds to fight another round of qualification for the breakthrough medal the Philippines needed badly to boost its sagging morale.

Southeast Asian Games silver medalist Divine Wally guns for at least a bronze when she battles Hyebin Kim of Korea in the women’s sanda (sparring) -52 kg category in wushu.

In the other quarterfinal matches, Franciso Solis takes on Wong Ting-hong of Hong Kong in the men’s sanda -56 kg, while Jean Claude Saclag goes up against Hendrik Tarigan of Indonesia also for a semifinal seat in the -60 kg class.

Tokyo-based Southeast Games gold medalist Kiyomi Watanabe easily disposed of Gulnar Hayytbayeva of Turkmenistan in 2:31 of the first round but World judo bronze medalist Kana Abe ended her campaign instantly in the second game in barely 70 seconds. She lost her bid for a bronze in the repechage where she also lost to Marian Urdabayeva of Kazakhstan.

Gilbert Ramirez bowed as early as the first round to Dastan Ykbayev of Kazakhstan. 

In men’s tennis, second-seeded and defending champion Chinese Taipei took a 2-0 lead over the Philippines, which a day earlier clobbered Mongolia, 3-0.

Conrad Treat Huey bowed to Yeou Tzu Wang, 4-6, 3-6, 0-6, while Patrick John Tierro lost to Hsun Lu, 0-6, 0-6.

In the women’s team event, host Korea also led, 2-0, making the third match, the doubles, a foregone conclusion.

Denise Dy yielded to Korea’s Nalae Han, 0-6, 3-6, while Katharina Lehnert ceded a 3-6, 5-7 loss to Sunjeong Jang.

Shooters Hagen Alexander Topacio and Eric Ang took an early exit, having ranked 28th and 37th, respectively, in the qualification stage of the trap event with scores of 112 and 108.

Local-bred Filipino swimmer Jessie King Lacuna clocked 1:53.20 and ranked 15th among 25 swimmers in the morning heats of the men’s 200m freestyle and was out of the evening finals.

In gymnastics, Reyland Capellan ranked third in Subdivision 1 of men’s floor exercise with 14.400 points and sixth in men’s vault with 14.350. Only the top 8 from the three subdivisions advance to the final round.