BEIJING—Mark Javier is not your typical athlete.

He’s five-foot-10, but looks frail because he’s actually five-foot-11. Add his shyness and, lo, you would not mistake him to be one of only a few Filipino athletes competing in these 29th Olympics.

But he has one, big fighting heart.

“May laban tayo,” he told the BusinessMirror just before his afternoon training Tuesday afternoon with coach Jennifer Chan.

Javier steps into the men’s round-of-64 knockout phase of archery beginning at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Olympic Green Archery Field. His opponent is Chinese Taipei’s Kuo Cheng-wei, who is a year younger than him at 25, but who led his team to the gold medal in last year’s World Cup in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

“Alam ko malakas siya pero I will give him a strong fight,” said Diaz, who was into air rifle—his dad Manuel being an avid Olympic air-rifle fanatic—before he got hooked to the bow and arrow 10 years ago in his native Dumaguete City.

Diaz was slowed down in the rankings phase of his event Sunday with diarrhea. He was bothered by the same ailment until Monday, when he had to limit his practice session by a day.

On Tuesday he was given a clean bill of health by Team Philippines doctor Alejandro Pineda.

“I gave him loperamide and antibiotics and [he] had to be orally rehydrated. But basically, he’s okay now,” said Pineda.

“I feel much better now, hindi kagaya kahapon na para akong lumulutang,” said Javier.

Javier, with a 44-lb bow, finished 36th in the rankings with 654, a new Philippine record. He owned the previous record of 643, which he set in Antalya, Turkey, in May. Kuo, also tall at five-foot-nine but heavy at 203 lb, finished at 29th place with 659.

Mexico’s Juan Rene Serrano made 679 and is the favorite in the event, although he, like the rest, would have to contend with world No. 1 Im Dong-hyun of Korea, who ranked eighth with 670 points. The Korean takes on Qatar’s Salem Ali (57th, 627).

Diaz was practically in all major archery competitions before he came to the Olympics. He was also in France and Cairo to sharpen his sights for his first Olympics.

He is the third Filipino archer to compete in the Olympics. Jennifer Chan qualified for the Sydney 2000 Games and Jasmin Figueroa in 2004 in Athens.

Harry a little overweight

BEIJING—Harry Tañamor went 400 grams over the light-flyweight limit of 48 kg, which worried Manny Lopez, the Philippine boxing chief, but not Cuban coach Enrique Tissert.

RP’s ‘strongest’ bet has 3 Olympics ahead of her

BEIJING—Hidilyn Diaz stares you in the eyes, ponders a bit on a query you throw at her, and again stares you in the eyes before answering candidly with a charm and a smile typical of the Filipino probinsyana.

‘May laban tayo’

BEIJING—Mark Javier is not your typical athlete.

He’s five-foot-10, but looks frail because he’s actually five-foot-11. Add his shyness and, lo, you would not mistake him to be one of only a few Filipino athletes competing in these 29th Olympics.

Swimmers are an ‘easy’ lot

BEIJING—Swimmers are easier to attend to than any other athlete, according to Dr. Martin Camara.

Camara, the Team Philippines chiropractor, told the BusinessMirror swimmers have the natural tendency to feel and determine which part of their body needs attention.

Among the Best

BEIJING—Michael Phelps spends his days at the Olympics wolfing down pizza and pasta, dodging text messages from friends and climbing to the top of the all-time winners’ list.

For tennis players, Olympics lack luster

BEIJING—Quite often, the prevailing question about Olympic tennis is not so much who won or who lost, but why bother.

Fil-Canadian archer debuts

BEIJING—Crispin Duenas, the other Filipino in the archery competitions of the 2008 Beijing Olympics but who is Canada’s best bet here, opens his own campaign for a gold medal Wednesday.

Ask Coach E: For the world to see

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