Pencak silat, karate save day for Philippines

After golden sweep, 12 bronze medals

JAKARTA – Away from the boisterous crowd in the basketball hall, pencak silat bet Cherry May Regalado and karateka Junna Tsukii silently fought their way to Asiad podium finish, adding glitter to the achievements of Team Philippines with five days of sporting action to go in the 18th Asian Games here.

The Monday morning sun shone brightly for the Phl contingent as Regalado took the bronze medal in pencak silat women’s singles at the Pencak Silat TMII Hall, and before sun set in the Indonesian capital, Junna emerged victorious from the repechage to likewise pocket a bronze in karateka competition over at the Convention Center.

 The twin bronze medals made up for the sorry loss of the national quintet to old nemesis South Korea, and kept the fire of the contingent’s charge lit up by the golf team’s sweet two-gold sweep in women’s play Sunday.

Except for one somber day, the Philippines has had its share of the medal pie in this continental sports conclave. And through 7 p.m. last night, the Philippines stood at 16th place with a total of 15 medals – three gold and 12 bronze.

The host team broke away from among the Southeast Asian teams in the medal count on its eight-gold domination in its indigenous sport of pencak silat.

The Indonesians have moved up to No. 4 in the overall medal race with a 22-15-27 gold-silver-bronze haul, trailing only China (86-62-43), Japan (43-36-57) and Korea (28-35-41).

Thailand remained at second among the Southeast Asians with 9-10-33, then came Malaysia (3-8-6), Singapore (3-4-10), the Philippines (3-0-12) followed closely now by Cambodia (2-0-1) then Vietnam (1-11-12).

 Philippine sports officials are pinning their hopes on three remaining boxers, the judo team, the roller skaters and hopefully the remaining track and field bets to add to the medal tally although the contingent has already assured itself of its best performance since the country’s four-gold performance in 2006 in Doha, Qatar.

Sadly, the country is out of the medal hunt in its most treasured event as the national quintet dropped an 82-91 loss to the tough South Korean team made tougher by naturalized player Ricardo Ratliffe, a demon of an import in his PBA stint with Magnolia.

Nevertheless, Team Phl won’t be shut out for the day – thanks Regalado and Junna.

A Kalibo, Aklan native, Regalado, 23, performed as a seasoned warrior just two years into serious training in the sport, making a huge improvement from her mere fourth-place finish in the SEA Games last year.

She earned 444 from her routine, losing the silver by a point to Singapore bet Nurzubairah Yazid Mohammad. The gold went to home bet Puspa Arumsari with a runaway score of 467.

Meanwhile, Tsukii outfought old rival Paweena Raksachart, 4-1, for the bronze medal in the -50kg class in women’s kumite in karate.

The Fil-Japanese, 26, dropped a close opening match against Uzbek Bakhriniso Babaeva, 1-2, and fought through the repechage to salvage the bronze. She first pummeled UAE’s Hawraa Alajmi before topping Raksachart.

Like Regalado, Junna was also a bronze medalist in the SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur last year.

Born to a Japanese father and a Filipina mother, Tsukii moved to Japan at age three and represented the country in international competitions before switching to the Philippines shortly before the KL SEAG.

 In Palembang, the Phl men’s rowing team overcame the odds and reached the finals of the 1,000-meter race but finished sixth and last at the close of the dragon boat championships yesterday.

Ranged against taller and heftier rivals, the Filipino paddlers struggled into the finish line among the finalists in four minutes, 43.641 seconds in the event won by the Taiwanese (4:31.85).  

Traditional Southeast Asian powerhouse and host Indonesia took the silver (4:34.97) while Korea settled for bronze (4:36.59) in the event which drew 15 countries.

“It was totally unexpected that we were able to get into finals since this is a long distance event. We need that kind of strength and endurance. So we’re really happy with the result,” said coach Lenlen Escollante of the performance of the game but inexperienced Pinoy bets, who were all making their Asian Games debuts.

“We need our paddlers to bulk up and gain more experience if we want to be competitive in the long distances,” added Escollante of his young team aged 19 to 23 years.

If there was any consolation, the coach said, “it’s the fact that we were able to best Myanmar, which is a strong dragon boat team in Southeast Asia.”

The Filipinos accomplished this in the second semis heat, holding off the surging Burmese in the last 50 meters in clinching the third and last finals slot  in the heat in 4:42.951, a mere two-tenths of a second faster than the latter’s 4:43.05.  

In bowling, the Filipinos bowed out without a medal as they floundered in the men’s and ladies masters at close of the event at the Jakabaring Sport City Bowling Center, also in Palembang.

Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games silver medalist Alexis Sy emerged as the best campaigner by finishing seventh after the eight-game second block, tallying an 18-game series of 3744 and a 228.06 average.

Sy finished 204 pins behind Japan’s Ishimoto Mirai, who bowled 3948-238.63, for the No. 1 spot.

South Koreans Lee Nahyong (3854-235.25) and Lee Yeonji (3847-234.19) finished second and third, respectively, to complete the cast in the stepladder finals scheduled later in the day.

Sy opened the second eight-game series strongly with a 242 but a pair of sub-200 games in the ninth (194) and 12th games (193) stymied her bid in advancing to the medal round as she completed her last four games with lines of 256, 255, 245 and 221, respectively.

Teammate Lara Posadas placed 12th overall among the 16 masters qualifiers (3593-219.88).

Waxing hot in the first four games in the second session, southpaw Enzo Hernandez cooled off in the stretch and wound up in ninth spot (3758-230.0), 237 pins off Malaysian No. 1 Muhammad Rafiq Ismail (3995-242.19).

The other Pinoy bowler, Kenneth Chua, placed 16th and last (3550-217.50) in the group.

Meanwhile, three Pinoy boxers bid to reach the medal round following the early exit of five in the eight-member boxing team.

Flyweight Rogen Landon shut out a Nepalese opponent  Sunday to advance to the quarterfinal against Kazakhstan. Light flyweight Carlo Paalam dropped Tu Powei of Chinese Taipei to also advance to the quarterfinal. Middleweight Eumir Marcial Lopez was fighting a Macau rival at press time. 

 Other Pinoy bets resume their medal hunt in skateboarding and soft tennis today with Cebuana Margielyn Arda Didal looming as the prohibitive women’s favorite in skateboarding in the absence of top Japanese rivals Isa Kaya and Yososomi Sakakura  at the Jakabaring Sport City Skate Park in Palembang.

“With the Japanese out, Margielyn is a very strong prospect for gold in the women’s street event,” said Skateboard Association of the Philippines Inc. president Monty Mendigoria.