Huge losses, mixed results here and there

Day gone with nothing to show

JAKARTA – The solemn chants from the tower of a Muslim temple signaled the onset of gathering dusk – the end of another mournful day for most Filipino athletes who stumbled over one another as they went for early exits and were forced out of the medal rounds in the cruel battlefronts of Palembang and Jakarta.

The sports of gymnastics, jetski, sport climbing, fencing, golf, softball and bowling absorbed catastrophic losses and embarrassments while mixed results took place in archery, bridge  and sepak takraw.

That was 24 hours after the Philippines gained its only medal, a bronze from wushu, and 48 hours after it took a gold from Hidilyn Diaz in weightlifting in the Philipines’  best day yet in the 18th Asian Games here.

The Philippines belles were the saving grace in booking a quarterfinal entry as they walloped Hong Kong, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22, for a first win in Asiad volleyball in 36 long years.

Disaster struck at the Jakarta International Expo Hall as Carlos Edriel Yulo, the favorite to rule the men’s floor exercise as the qualifying-round top performer, hurtled to a sorry seventh-place finish in the final round.

It best typified the Filipino bets’ anemic showing in various fronts in the day – from the archery field, to the golf course all the way to the different playing halls in the Indonesian capital and in the battlefronts in Palembang.

Thus, the Philippines’ medal tally stayed at 1-0-5 (gold-silver-bronze) even as powerhouse teams China (55-40-21), Japan (25-28-33) and Korea (16-20-27) continued to hike their hauls. Indonesia remained the solid pacesetter among Southeast Asian countries with 8-6-10, followed by consistent Thailand (6-4-16), surging Vietnam (1-4-7), Malaysia (1-3-1) and finally the Philippines.

BJ Ang was not even able to compete at all in Jet Ski in the South Sumatra capital.

 “His boat was not released by the Indonesian customs authorities. His jet ski was at the airport customs since Saturday. The issue was elevated at the Indonesia executive level,” said Phl chef de mission Richard Gomez.

A good size of Philippine crowd showed up in the gymnastics venue anticipating a golden showing by Yulo but the 18-year-old failed to live up to expectations.

 “I committed a mistake. I didn’t feel any pressure. It’s on me. I committed a mistake,” said Yulo.

 “In my third pass, I didn’t see the floor, I didn’t know what to do next, and I lost balance,” he added.

Yulo’s hope for a medal vanished in the air quickly as he was already out of the medal race after five bets had performed.

 Third in the order, Yulo scored 13.5 as against the 14.425 of first performer Tang Chia-hung of Chinese Taipei then the 13.425 of Kakeru Tanigawa of Japan.

The next two bets to take the floor also  surpassed Yulo’s score. Another Taiwanese Lee Chih Kai logged 13.950 while Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi earned 13.675.

Then came eventual gold medallist Korean Kim Hansol who displayed a winning performance that drew 14.675, surpassing Yulo’s 14.5 in the qualifying.

Yulo, however, took things in stride, saying there’s still lot of competitions where he can redeem himself.

He said his loss here would not deter him from pursuing a bid to make the Olympics.

Hopes are high, though, that the Phl medal machine will crank up again with the touted Phl ju-jitsu to swing into action starting today.

The Pinoy boxers also begin their own quests.

In volleyball, the victory came after back-to-back shutout losses to Thailand and Japan with the Pinay spikers seeking another win against Indonesia tomorrow at the close of group play.

In golf, the hyped-up Philippine women’s team could only churn out a 143 anchored on Yuka Saso’s one-under 71 and fell seven strokes behind the hot-starting Japanese side at the Pondok Indah Golf Course.

In men’s play, Weiwei Gao matched par 72,  Lloyd Go shot a 74 and  Rupert Zaragosa III and Luis Castro each shot a 77 for 223, way behind Japan’s  208.

In pencak silat, the Philippines split its Round of 16 matches with Jefferson Loon crushing Timor Leste’s Mateus Da Silva, 5-0, in 60kg-65kg Class D, and Alvin Campos dropping a 0-5 setback to Malaysian Al Jufferi Jamari in the 65kg-75kg Class E. The Phl also nipped Vietnam, 2-1, in men’s team doubles prelims.

In squash, Alyssa Dalida thumped Uyanga Amarmend of Mongolia, 3-0, and Jemyca Aribado disposed of Farzad Hadis of Iran in the Round of 32.

At the GBK Field late Wednesday, the Philippine Blu Girls blew their chance for a Top 2 finish, bowing to Chinese Taipei, 2-3, and settling for the third seeding. They bowed again to the Taiwanese in late last night’s  semifinals, 3-6, and were out of today’s medal rounds with a fourth place finish.

Taiwan faces China in the Page system finals at 10:30 a.m. The loser wins the bronze and the winner faces top seed Japan in the grand final at 3 p.m. for the gold.