Golfer, jins save day for Pinoys

GUANZHOU – Young Miguel Tabuena tamed the Dragon Boat Lake golf course like a seasoned golfer as he took the silver in individual competition, while three taekwondo jins put in a performance good for the bronze in the only medal finish of the Philippine contingent still hoping for a golden miracle in the XVI Asian Games.

Tabuena,16, shrugged off the day-long challenge of Taiwanese Hung Chien Yao with a routine par in the 18th hole to gain the silver, the most precious metal the Filipinos could muster in the ongoing Games among 45 countries.

At about the same time taekwondo jin Kristine Elaine Alora outclassed Vietnamese Nguyen Ha Thi for a 4-2 win that sent her to the semifinal where she lost to Feruza Vergeshova of Kazakhstan, 7-3.

Vergezhova settled for the silver in her gold-medal match with China’s Luo Wei.

Paul Romero booted out Saudi Arabian Amonalad A Hamed Mahmod (12-2), Tan Jun Wei Jason (13-2) and Mongolia ‘s Bilguun Khosbayar until he was halted by Asian Championships silver medalist Yang Chen Wei of Taipei (3-0) in the semis.

Also a semifinalist after easing out Yemen’s Tameem Al Kubati (6-4) and manhandling Ajaiman Alojaiman of Kuwait (9-4) John Paul Lizardo lost, 10-7, to Kim Seong of the fancied Korean team.

“We just could not get the big breaks. Our athletes did everything according to plan,” said coach Rocky Samson.

The Philippines’ medal count stood at 2-2-8 (gold-silver-bronze), far behind frontrunning China (134-63-66) and overshadowed by sixth-placed Thailand (7-7-19), 10th-ranked Singapore (4-6-6), 12th-ranked Indonesia (3-6-10) and 13th placed Malaysia (3-6-14).

The only Southeast Asian countries it led were Vietnam (0-11-11) and Myanmar (0-5-1).

Boxing stood as the last frontier for the saddened Philippine contingent, whose defeated warriors had already left for Manila along with officials of their respective national sports associations.

Boxer Victorio Saludar kept golden hopes alive after seeing off Zarip Jumayev of Turkmenistan, 12-3, in the round of 16 fight in the 46-49 kgs division.

Playing their matches last night were Rey Saludar against Rai Puran of Nepal and Wilfredo Lopez versus Arshad Hussain of Pakistan.

Delfin Boholst is another casualty in boxing after a 1-8 loss to Mongolian Tuvshinbat Byamba Friday evening.

The bowling team was a far cry from the gold-medal exploits of Biboy Rivera in men’s singles a week ago as Rivera himself failed to lead the trios team to a medal.

The Rivera-led trios team finished with 3753 pinfalls for 10th behind medal winners Korea 2 (4061) Korea 1 (3952) and Qatar (3908).

Rivera scored 1267, Chester King 1227, and Frederick Ong 1259 for 3753.

Worse was the other trios team which was 20th among 30 teams with 3606 from the 1350 of Raoul Miranda, 1123 of Collins Jose, and 1133 of Benshir Layoso.

In the women’s side, the trios teams of Liza del Rosario, Marianne Posadas and Liza Clutario finished ninth and the group of Lara Posadas, Krizziah Tabora and Kimberly Lao was 20th behind medal winners Singapore, Korea and China.

Fourteenth seed Cecil Mamiit lost to third seed Go Soeda of Japan, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, and Treat Conrad Huey followed suit with a 4-6, 4-6 loss to Tatsuma Ito also of Japan.

In the doubles quarterfinal, Huey and Mamiit bowed to Taipei’s H.H. Lee and C.H. Yi, 6-7, 4-6.

The Blu Girls, still reeling from their 1-7 loss to China on opening day, yielded to Chinese Taipei, 2-9, but hope to score at least one win when they face Southeast Asian rival Thailand today.

In the individual time trial of road cycling, Marites Bitbit occupied ninth among 13 and counterpart Lloyd Lucien Reynante wound up 16th out of 20 starters in the 35.6 km. race.

The chess team of Wesley So, Joey Antonio, Darwin Laylo and Richard Bitoon dropped a 1-3 loss to top seed China after a 3-1 win over Iran on opening day but rebounded with a 3-1 rout of Bangladesh for a share of third.

Mark Javier placed 31st, while Delfin Adriano was 50th in the qualification round. Their ranking at least assured them of a matchup with lower-ranked opponents in the archery round of 64 which starts today.