Vintage Tac scores shooters breakthru win

MANILA, Philippines - For a shooting team still hunting for its first gold the last four years and a shooter who has not won one in 16 years, this one was worth its weight in gold.

Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla fought off the mounting pressure in a battle of nerves that all boiled down to the last shot to win the first and what could be the last gold for the national shooting team in the penultimate playing date of competitions at the indoor shooting range of the National Sports Complex yesterday.

Padilla, who scored 560, three points behind the first placer from Malaysia for third place after the qualification round, fired 193.20 in the last 20 shots for an aggregate of 753.20 to win the gold, his third since the 1979 and 1993 SEA Games.

“It’s a great victory not only for me but for the team, considering that we have not won any medal during the first days of competition,” said Padilla before the gold medal ceremonies.

It was also sweet victory for the 45-year-old Padilla, who admitted he had little time for practice because of his business schedule as general manager of a family-owned business which manufactures Spring Cooking Oil.

“The only time I had to practice was between lunch,” said the soft-spoken son of the great OlympianTom Ong, and father of a rising young shooting star, Nicole.

“When I go home for lunch at 11:30 a.m. daily, I take a few minutes to shoot in our (family-owned) shooting range, then head back to the office at 1:30 p.m.,” said Padilla. “This gold is worth the sacrifice we had to put up to win it.”

It looked like Padilla will be in for another disappointing year, but unlike in the 2007 when his gun malfunctioned, this time he guaranteed his newly bought gun would not be a cause for failure.

But he had to go through some anxious moments as he entered the final round – which involved 20 shots on a four-second series – three shots behind Malaysian Hafiz (563) and one behind Vietnamese Pham Cao Son (561).

Fortunately, Hafiz collapsed and eventually finished fourth. Leading the round, another Malaysian, Hasli Izwan caught up with him.

“I was really nervous, but I kept my composure – I have been through this a number of times in my career,” said Padilla. He assumed the overall lead anew and won it with 753.20 points. Hasli and Son tied the score at 749.20, with the Malaysian winning the silver in the shootoff.

His effort however, was not enough to lift the RP team to the medal standings. His score plus those of Ronaldo Hejastro (529) and Robert Donalvo (511) totaled 1600.

The gold went to Vietnam (1666), the silver to Malaysia (1652) and the bronze to Thailand (1637). The Filipinos will compete in the last event, the 25 m center fire, which concludes the shooting competitions here today.

“We are not overly optimistic about our chances because we didn’t have the ammunition to be able to practice in Manila before the Games, but we’ll give it our best shot,” sa¡id Padilla.     – Gerry Carpio