Aya wrests 2nd archery gold; Yap settles for silver

NAKHON RATCHASIMA – Amaya Paz reasserted her status as the country’s and the region’s best compound archer as she retained her Southeast Asian Games title with a two-point conquest of Indonesia’s top shooter yesterday in the SEA Games archery competitions at the football field of Suranaree University of Technology here.

Paz, who rose to fame in 2005 when she defeated compatriot Jennifer Chan for the SEAG gold in individual compound, kept her poise under extreme pressure as she outshot Indonesian Dellie Threesyadidnda to win the individual gold by a mere two points.

An expected repeat of a Paz-Chan finale failed earlier as Chan lost in the quarterfinals to Thai Narisara Tinbua also by a whisker, 113-112.

Earl Benjamin Yap was battling Nuyen Tien Cuong of Vietnam, 111-110,  in the men’s semifinals of the individual compound event.  He bowed to Indonesian Puruhit  In, 115-112, and bagged the silver.

The women’s compound team of Paz, Chan and Abbigail Tindugan also made progress, drawing a bye into the semifinal round where it will meet Myanmar, led by individual bronze medalist Aung Ngeain.

The winner in today’s match advances to the gold medal round in the other semifinal match between Singapore and Indonesia.

The men’s team compound, however, failed to advance to the semifinals, bowing to Singapore, 203-221, in the quarterfinals.

Marvin Cordero also advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s individual  recurve, aiming to pick up a victory over Vietnamese Nguyen Ba Hai to reach the medal round.

Cordero also towed the men’s team to the semifinals where they are to meet second seed Indonesia for a place in the gold medal round today at the close of archery competitions.