Dela Cruz hits archery bronze; Team Phl at 24th

INCHEON, South Korea – Paul Morton dela Cruz settled for the bronze in archery, one more medal in the still near-empty treasure chest of Team Philippines, which fell one by one in the early rounds to the best of the continent on various fronts of 17th the Asian Games yesterday.

Dela Cruz lost to Iranian entry Esmail Ebadi in the men’s individual semifinal of the compound event but recovered to salvage a medal in his battle for the bronze with another Iranian, Saki Bin Mahazan.

The compound men’s team also lost to Iran, 227-224, and did not advance to the medal round.

As of late last night the Philippines was at 24th overall among 45 countries with two silver and two bronze medals. From Southeast Asia, Malaysia was 10th with 3-6-7 gold-silver-bronze medals, Myanmar 13th with 2-0-0, Vietnam 14th with 1-6-20, Singapore 16th (1-3-7), Indonesia 17th (1-3-6) and Thailand 19th (1-0-10).

China flattened the field with a 96-57-41, leaving behind Korea (35-42-40), and Japan (32-43-38).

Women boxers Josie Gabuco and Nesthy Petecio advanced to the semifinals with huge victories in their class, bringing the country’s medal potentials in the sport to five counting the first round wins of light flyweight Mark Anthony Barriga, bantamweight Mario Fernandez, lightweight Charly Suarez and middleweight Wilfredo Lopez.

Gabuco, 27 subdued former world youth titlist Lin Yu Ting of Chinese-Taipei, scoring a 2-0 win in their flyweight match while Petecio, 22, was on the offensive end throughout in her 3-0 win over Gulzhaina Ubbiniyazova of Kazakhstan in their lightweight battle.

Judges from Algeria and Great Britain saw Gabuco the winner by identical scores of 39-37 while the judge from Morocco saw Lin, who emerged as the world youth flyweight champion last year in Bulgaria, tying it a 38.

Ian Clark Bautista, however, was stopped by Korean Choe Sangdon, 3-0, in a controversial men’s flyweight match.

Archand Bagsit and Edgardo Alejan have qualified for the second semifinals of the men’s 400m in athletics. Their next races were set later last night.

The men’s doubles tennis pair of Ruben Gonzales and Treat Huey surrendered a 6-0, 6-3 game to Korea’s Kim Yongku and Hyeon Chung and with it their bronze medal aspiration.