No 5th gold, only silver and tears

Boxing, Philippines denied a milestone in 56 years

JAKARTA – A head butt thwarted the dream of the last Filipino athlete with a shot at the gold medal here yesterday and pegged Team Philippines at 19th place in the medal tally with only one last event to be disputed today before curtains fall on the 18th Asian Games here.

Rogen Ladon lost his crack at Asiad glory on a head butt from Uzbek rival Jasurbek Latipov, settling for the silver medal that could all well end the contingent’s hunt for mints in the Jakarta/Palembang Games.

Singapore SEA Games triathlon queen Claire Adorna, Kuala Lumpur successor Kim Mangrobang, John Chicano and Mark Hosana end Team Phl’s campaign here as they team up in the mixed relay starting at 7:30 a.m. today at the Jakabaring Sports Park in Palembang.

But up against the East Asian ultra-athletes, the Phl relay team can only hope for at least a Top 10 finish as Mangrobang and Kim Kilgroe did in women’s triathlon Friday.

In men’s triathlon yesterday, Chicano and Niko Huelgas took pride in just being the best Southeast Asian performers at 10th and 16th, respectively.

Ranged against world-rated rivals, Chicano, a silver medalist in the 2017 KL SEAG, clocked one hour, 54 minutes, 33 seconds in the 1.80-km swim/20-km bike/10-km run race, exceeding his personal best of 1:56.00 set in the 2016 Subic International Triathlon.

Chicano duplicated the 10th place finish of Jonard Sam, who clocked 1:59.00 in the 2014 edition in Incheon.    

Huelgas, who bagged back-to-back gold medals in the 2015 Singapore and 2017 Malaysia SEA Games, logged 1:58.39, surpassing his previous time of 1:59.17 in placing 11th in the 2014 Incheon Games. He also eclipsed his winning time of 1:59.30 for his second SEAG mint in Putra Jaya two years ago.

But the Philippines missed the gold it had wished to nail through Ladon.

The Philippines thus got stuck at 19th place with four gold, two silver and 15 bronze medals, finishing closely behind Southeast Asian rivals Vietnam (4-16-18) and Singapore (4-4-14).

“I’m happy for our improvement in medal haul, pero kinulang in my projection for a No. 15 finish,” said Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas.

“Last time, four gold medals were enough for No. 15. We had four now but only at No. 19. It means the other teams are also improving,” Vargas added. 

The last Filipino athlete to chase a gold settled for a silver as Ladon sustained a deep cut over his left eye due to a head butt in the second round of his title bout against Latipov.

A check on the ugly wound prompted the ring doctor to stop the fight just 22 seconds into the second round.

There was a little confusion as the ring announcer declared a Referee Stopped Contest win for the Uzbek, but the official result showed the winner winning by the judges’ scorecards which, except for the Indonesian, went the Uzbek’s way, 3-1.

And the boxing team once again cried foul over judging.

“Paano siya pumuntos eh hindi naman bumabato ng suntok?” said Ladon.

“Nasa lubid siya, biglang nag-bounce pabalik sa akin at na-head butt ako,” Ladon said on his cut.

“Well, we’re actually confused as well because the announcement was RSC-I. In which case, the injured boxer loses because the injury was caused by a legal punch. Now if it were a clash of heads, unintentional, then you go to the scorecards. But then again, the scorecards reflected that the Uzbek won both rounds,” said boxing secretary general Ed Picson.

“So there’s no way we can win. But we don’t understand why the officials could not agree amongst themselves whether it was RSC-I or winner on points,” he added.

“But that’s beside the point. Whatever decision it was, it was obvious that they didn’t see us winning. Sa tingin namin, the completed round was for Rogen who delivered the clearer and more shots, more punches,” Picson added.

Uzbek fighters made the finals of all seven men’s divisions, five of them winning the gold. Uzbekistan had never been a contender in Asian boxing until the emergence of Uzbek Gafur Rakhimov as AIBA president.

Ladon’s loss kept Phl boxing without an Asian gold in the last two editions of the quadrennial games.

Going with Ladon’s silver were the pair of bronzes of Carlo Paalam and Eumir Marcial. Out right in their opening bouts here were Nesthy Petecio, Joel Bacho, Mario Fernandez and James Palicte.

The Jakarta/Palembang Games come to an end tonight with skateboard champ Margie Didal leading around 70 Filipino athletes joining the parade in the closing ceremonies in the GBK Sports Stadium.