Wednesday, December 06, 2006 Philippines bows out of last 8
AFTER surviving a tough match against Kuwait, the Philippines bowed out in the quarterfinal round in Men’s tennis in the Asian Games at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
Fil-Am pair Frederick Taino and Cecil Mamiit lost their respective singles matches against the second seeded Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.
Taino was the first to drop as he lost in straight sets to Wang Yeu Tzuoo in straight sets, 2-6, 2-6. Taino, who won a gold with Mamiit in the Southeast Asian Games last year, was leading 2-1 and 2-0 early in the first and second sets before the higher seeded Taiwanese broke through.
On the other hand, Mamiit showed his toughness as he erased a 2-1 deficit to take the first set against Lu Yen Hsun, 6-3, but dropped the next two sets, 3-6, 4-6.
“I’m getting better as each day goes by…I’m not that all beat up,” said Mamiit, who is nursing an injury. “Clearly, they were the better team. We were the underdogs. But we had an opportunity, it was close, so close,” he added.
Still, the Philippines could get its first gold medal from the Men’s Trios competition in bowling.
Led by four-time World Cup champion Rafael “Paeng” Nepomuceno, the team was just nine pins off the leaders Malaysia going into the fourth-game of the six-game series at press time.
Nepomuceno punctuated the run with a 298, just two pins off a perfect game, in the third frame as the team tallied 1989. Tyrone Ongpauco faltered with a 185 in the third while Chester Constatine King had a respectable 211.
Lost bronze
The trio’s campaign comes a day after Markwin Tee and Tyrone Ongpauco got dislodged from a possible bronze medal finish after the second half of the Men’s Doubles draw took the lanes. The pair was gunning third after the first half with a total haul of 2,740. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Alshaikh Hassan and Al Alshaik Bader took the gold with 2821, while Qatar’s Al Qatan Abdulla and Al Hajri Saed took the silver with 2782 and UAE’s Mohammad Jamal Ali and Al Abadla Nayef Eqab took the bronze.
In soft tennis, Dante Belen crashed out after losing 0-4 to Kim Kyung Ryun in just 10 minutes.
In cycling at the street circuit, the Filipinos’ best finish was at 13th, delivered by Marlboro Tour veteran Arnel Quirimit. Teammate Warren Davadilla ended up at 21st place. The 3-lap race, which covers a total of 156.4 kms, was dominated a Hong Kong cyclist.
In the distaff side, lone lady rider Baby Maritess Bitbit wound up at 16th place.
Quirimit and Bitbit is set to compete in the Individual Time Trial at the Al-Khor Road Course.
Wipe outs
In beach volleyball, both the ladies and men’s team tasted defeat at the hands of Chinese teams.
Chem Xue and Zgang Xi Chin toyed with the Fil-Am pair of Diane Pascua and Heidi Ilustre, 21-15, 21-18 in only 48 minutes.
Parley Tupas and Rhovyl Velayo lost to Shun Zhou and Jian Li, 21-10, 21-14 in the men’s game.
Pacua and Ilustre next face the Sri Lankan team of Geethika Gunawardana and Withanage Wijesinghe.
In weightlifting, Mandaue City’s Renante Briones plunges into action at the Al-Dana Banquet today. He will be competing in the snatch and clean and jerk events in the Men’s 105kg division. The other half of the weighlift-ing team, Heidilyn Diaz bowed out of the tournament early. (ML/MCB)
