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THE
men’s trap team of Jethro Dionisio, Carlos Carag and
Eric Ang bagged the country’s first medal in the 24th
Southeast Asian Games—a silver—and veteran Emerito
Concepcion contributed a bronze, also in shooting, at
the Sports Authority of Thailand range in Bangkok
yesterday.
The
Filipino trio amassed 312 points after the two-day
competition, six behind the gold-medal winning Singapore
team of Choon Seng Choo, Wung Yew Lee and Mohz Zaid Amat.
 Malaysia’s
Seong Fook Chen, Wei Heng Leong and Yeoh Cheng Han
Bernard clinched the bronze with 309.
Ang said
the team won the silver despite limited practice time in
the Thai venue.
“We just
arrived here November 23, while our opponents have been
here practicing for three weeks,” said Ang in a text
message to the BusinessMirror. The trio was fresh from
their bronze-medal finish in the Asian Clay Shooting
Championships in Muntinlupa last month.
Dionisio
is a six-time world speed shooting champion, a 2001
Kuala Lumpur SEA Games silver medalist and a 2004
Olympian, while Ang won the gold medal in theSoutheast
Asian Clay Shooting Championships a few months ago.
Carag, on the other hand, is the national trap champion.
Concepcion
delivered the Philippines’ first bronze medal in the
10-meter rifle competition. He shot a 586 to finish
third in the event won by Koh Tien Wei Jonath of
Singapore.
Koh had a 593, three ahead of silver medalist Ong Jim
Hong of Singapore.
The
other Filipino shooters were not as fortunate in Day
Two. Concepcion’s teammates Daryl Sandoval and Alfonso
Hermoso finished 12th and 14th in the 10-meter rifle,
resulting to a fourth-place finish for the Philippines
in the team event.
Carolino
Gonzales failed to make it in the Final Eight in his
events. He finished 14th out of 17 shooters in the men’s
50-meter pistol and took the 12th spot in the men’s
10-meter air pistol.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla shoots for his fifth
gold medal as the men’s 25-meter standard pistol starts
today. Padilla, who has been competing in the SEA Games
since 1977 when he was 13, will be joined in the event
by Robert Donalvo and Gonzales.
The
43-year-old Padilla, who won gold in the 1979, 1983,
1987 and 1993 editions, will also compete in the rapid
fire pistol, where he was a silver medalist in the 2005
SEA Games, on Friday and the center-fire pistol on
Saturday.
Muay
officials remain hopeful
THE Muay
Association of the Philippines (MAP) will still send
bantamweight Brent Velasco and lightweight Jay Olod to
the Games as it remains optimistic the events will be
reinstated before competition starts on December 9.
MAP
president Robert Valdez said there is a strong chance
that the two events, which were scrapped by the
organizers because of lack of participating countries,
would be reinstated because of a strong lobby which the
Filipinos are heading.
“We are
currently working it out, and we’re very optimistic that
the two events would be reinstated,” said
Valdez.
“And we’ll take chance of bringing Brent and Jay there.”
Valdez
said they would know of the decision during the team
managers’ meeting on December 8.
MAP
believes that the two athletes have a strong chance of
winning gold medals. Velasco, although only a silver
medalist in the Manila SEA Games two years ago, is a
two-time world champion while Olod is a veteran
internationalist. Valdez said the two sluggers are on
their peak right now.
The two
muay events were among the 12 dropped by the Thai
organizers because of lack of participants. The others
were skeet, trap and double trap in shooting, women’s
windsurfing in sailing, weightlifting’s 48 kgs women and
over-76 kgs, equestrian eventing individual and team,
squash’s women individual and cycling’s women downhill.
Equestrian (eventing) and women’s cycling in mountain
bike’s downhill event, however, were reinstated last
week.
Suggestion from Cojuangco
PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee (POC) president Jose
Cojuangco Jr. would suggest to the SEA Games Federation
council meeting to have two categrories for the overall
championships, one for all sports and the other for
Olympic sports.
“This
could be a solution to the perennial problem in the SEA
Games of what sports should be added to the calendar,”
said Cojuangco after the POC General Assembly yesterday
at the Milkyway Cafe in Makati City.
“This
will also enhance or help the member-countries in their
effort to win more gold medals in the Olympics,”
Cojuangco.
The POC
chief said they will be drafting the proposal here
before the scheduled council meeting on December 7 in
Thailand.
“We need
to be prepared and we have to find the right formula for
this to convince the other Asean members to approve this
proposal,” Cojuangco furthered.
If
approved by the SEAG Federation, the scheme will be used
in the next Games in Vientiane in Laos in 2009.
Meanwhile, Cojuangco said that it’s all systems go for
the campaign of the Team Philippines in the Games in
Nakhon, Ratchasima.
Chef de
Mission Monico Puentevella presented to the POC board
the forms that the delegates need to fill up for the
actual accreditation of the biennial meet.
“We
don’t have much problem with regard to the accreditation
of our delegates there. Of course, at first, it’s a bit
confusing but they’re now settling down,” said Cojuangco.
Squash’s
Romy Ribano admitted that the first batch of athletes
already in Thailand, like the shooting and windsurfing
teams, have encountered minor problems in their
accommodation.
“We’re
fine but we really expect to have minor problems there.
That cannot be avoided,” said Ribano.
Cojuangco’s concern is the archery team where the
competition is slated on December 6 and the team will
only leave the country on December 5.
“We
can’t do anything about it because all the hotels there
are fully booked. Let’s just hope that we can give them
a flight early in the morning on December 5 so at least
they’d be able to rest,” said Cojuangco. (With Ian Brion
and Joel Orellana) |
