DIANE PASCUA (left) helps to provide the silver lining in an otherwise drab start by the Filipinos. ROMY FLORANTE

DESERT DRY
The Filipinos are left eating dust in Doha

By Jun Lomibao
Editor

DOHA—The Philippines struggled in practically all fronts with Jethro Dionisio missing a medal in shooting’s trap event as bowling, one of the sports picked to deliver the gold medal, didn’t look it could Sunday in the 15th Asian Games.
           
And while the Filipinos didn’t matter on the third day of competitions in these biggest Asian Games ever, the Chinese are doing good on their vow—and proving predictions right—with 20 gold medals, already representing more than half of what was staked (27) so far.
           
Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore, countries the Philippines beat in the overall championship race in last year’s 23rd Sea Games back home, were also already way ahead of the Filipinos by emerging in the medals picture.
           
The Thais have won three silver and a bronze medal in weightlifting, the Vietnamese, too, had a silver in weightlifting and a bronze in shooting, and the Singaporeans took a shooting silver and a swimming bronze.
           
Miguel Molina was fourth in the 400-meter individual medley Saturday evening but his time of four minutes and 28.44 seconds was about seven seconds off the bronze-medal time. On Sunday, Molina could only find himself on the wait list (substitute) in the 200-meter free style and 50-meter breaststroke.
           
Dionisio, winner of a bronze medal in trap in 2002 in Busan, couldn’t repeat with his total 125 points, three points off bronze-finisher Khaled Amudhaf of Kuwait. Another Kuwaiti, Naser Meqlad, clinched gold (133), while India’s Manavjit Singh settled for silver with 130.
           
Dionisio groped in the one string final, downing only 15 birds to bomb out of the running. He earlier rallied with strings of 21 and 23 to make the final as the fourth-best qualifier.
           
Jaime Recio and Eric Ang were nowhere in contention all the way. Recio made 100 and Ang had 99 points as the men’s team wound up fourth behind Kuwait, India and Lebanon, the gold-silver-bronze finishers.
           
The bowlers, who contributed one of three gold medals the country won in Busan, looked slanted Saturday.
           
No Filipino was in sight atop the tally board after the first phase of the women’s singles at the Qatar Bowling Center. Indonesian Putty Insavilla Armein rolled 1,161 pins for the early lead, with Korean Nam Bo Ra coming in second with 1,109.
           
Cecilia Yap with 1,027 was at 4th place. Rookie Marianne Poa das rolled 989 for 17th, Liza Clutario 913 for 28th and Irene Garcia 895 for 31st.
           
Liza del Rosario and Josephine Canare are scheduled to play Sunday afternoon. The men, led by world champion Biboy Rivera and four-time World Cup champion Paeng Nepomuceno, were to play in the evening.
           
Flyweight Violito Payla and featherweight Anthony Marcial convincingly defeated less-illustrious foes Saturday night in boxing. They will shoot for quarterfinal round seats against Vietnam’s Tran Quoc Viet and Iraq’s Suraka Mahdi, respectively, Sunday.
           
Rowing showed promise though with SEA Games champions Benjamin Tolentino Jr. and Jose Rodriguez topping their heats in the men’s doubles sculls to reach Wednesday’s semifinals where they will race against China, Korea, Japan, Chinese-Taipei, Hong Kong and two survivors from the repechage.
           
Also last Saturday, Roel Ramirez was sixth and qualified in the final of the horse
vault event which is also set Wednesday. The Education junior at the University of the East tallied 17.500, although he was not familair with the European equipment used in the Games.
           
Promise was also seen in beach volleyball Saturday. Heidi Ilustre and Diane Pascua nipped Yelena Alenkina and Marina Storozhenko of Kazakhstan, 21-16, 11-21, 17-15, while Parley Tupaz and Rhovyl Verayo rammed Oman’s Khalifa al-Jabri and Badar al-Subhi, 21-12, 21-14.
           
Late results coming in from judo showed veteran John Baylon advancing after he beat Pakistan’s Saeed Akhtar in the men’s minus 81 kgs class. Baylon, the undisputed SEA Games champion in his category, has Kazakhstan’s Almas Atayev as his next opponent. They were to clash later Sunday.