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THE gold
medal continued to elude Team Philippines whose shooters
missed their marks in Day Three of the shooting
competition of the 24th Southeast Asian Games yesterday
at the Sports Authority of Thailand Shooting Range in
Bangkok.
Five-time gold medalist Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla failed
to notch his sixth mint in the biennial meet and, worse,
even missed a consolation bronze medal by a point. The
most popular Filipino in the sport came up empty-handed
in the men’s 25-meter standard pistol event.
The
43-year-old Padilla, who won the gold medal in 1979,
1983, 1987 and 1993 and is on his 15th SEA Games
appearance, finished fifth with 553 points, 10 behind
the gold medal-winning aggregate of Thailand’s Prakam
Karndee.
Singapore’s
Lip Meng Poh took silver with 559 points, while
Vietnam’s
Huang Xuan Vinh edged local bet Pruet Sriyaphan in a
shoot-off for the bronze after they finished tied at
554.
The two
other Filipinos who competed in the event, Robert
Donalvo and Carolino Gonzales, finished 13th and 14th in
the field of 16 with scores of 523 and 522,
respectively.
Thailand
also bagged the gold in the event’s team competition
when its three bets submitting a total of 1657 points,
beating
Singapore’s 1646
and Vietnam’s 1630. The Philippines came in fourth with
1598.
The host
country’s bets actually swept all six gold medals at
stake yesterday to catapult themselves to the top of the
medal tally as of yesterday afternoon. The Thais also
have nine silvers and two bronzes.
Overnight leader
Singapore
slid to second with 5-4-3 followed by Vietnam with
3-2-6, while Myanmar is at fourth with two golds and a
bronze and
Malaysia
is at fifth with 1-1-2 collection.
The
one-silver and one-bronze output put Team Philippines in
sixth ahead of Indonesia, which has two bronzes across
its name.
Besides
the 25-meter standard pistol, Thailand also ruled the
individual and team competitions in the women’s 10-meter
air pistol and 50-meter rifle 3 positions events.
The
Philippines had an entry in the women’s individual
10-meter air pistol in Susan Aguado, but the veteran
campaigner fell by the wayside right in the preliminary
stage and finished a poor 11th with 364 points. Warinya
Butcha bagged the gold with 481.2 points, besting
compatriot Tanyapom Prucksakorn, who scored 477.7
points, while the bronze went to Vietnam’s Nguyen Thu
Van with 475.5.
Sasithorn Hongprasert won the 50-meter rifle 3 positions
title with 669.5 points, edging out countryman Kusuma
Tavisri by 1.1 points, while Malaysia’s Mohd Taibi Nur
Suryani clinched the bronze with 665.3. Vietnam took the
silver in the event’s team competition with the bronze
going to Malaysia.
Today,
the Filipino shooters will again try to hit the gold
medal as Padilla and Donalvo compete in the 25-meter
rapid pistol event, while the troika of Edwin Fernandez,
Rocky Pardilla and Eddie Tomas plunge into the men’s
50-meter rifle prone competition. |
