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NAKHON
RATCHASIMA—Save for the coaching staff and the rest of
Team Cycling Philippines, no one saw it coming,
officials of the Philippine delegation included.
The Philippines’ last gold on Tuesday
came when almost everybody else was getting ready for
bed, and it came almost an hour after the event—the
men’s 40-km points race of track—was over.
Victor Espiritu had to nervously wait
for the official announcement that he had clinched the
second gold medal for the team after Thai cycling
officials profusely questioned and meticulously reviewed
and scrutinized the result of perhaps the most
complicated cycling event —road, track and mountain bike
combined.
“Waaahooooooh!!!” Espiritu blurted when
the stadium barker announced in cracking english that he
had won the gold medal, beating two Thais, one of them
Prajak Mahawong, the winner of road’s individual time
trial (ITT) here.
PhilCycling president Bert Lina, who is
here with his wife Sylvia, could only sigh in relief.
“Muntik na,” he said, referring to what might have been
a lost gold had the commissaires’ panel yielded to Thai
pressure.
Espiritu earned the gold by garnering
88 points. Mohawang settled for silver with 83 points
and another rider from the host team, Thanawat Somna,
bagged bronze with 74 points.
And for Espiritu, winning his second
SEA Games gold medal—which was also achieved through a
brilliant strategy cooked up by the coaching staff—in 10
years came so very sweet.
“Totoo pala ang kasabihan na winning
the second time is sweeter than the first time,” said
the 33-year-old Espiritu, this year’s Padyak Pinoy
champion back home.
Espiritu won a belated gold medal in
the men’s ITT in 1997 in
Jakarta
. He was second in the race but Indonesian Tonton
Susanto, who is also still racing in this edition of the
biennial event, tested positive for banned substances.
The Navotas transplant—he used to live
in Malabon—earned a controversial silver medal in the
2003 Vietnam Games. He missed the 2005
Manila edition
because he was barred from competing by his professional
team.
“Ang tagal kong hinintay ’to,” said
Espiritu.
Literally, he did.
Besides waiting for almost an hour for
the official result, he had to endure for an hour and a
half in the 120-lap race where a rider earns points—5,
3, 2 and 1—for each sprint and bonuses for overlapping a
rider or riders and for topping the final sprint (20
points). The points race is the most unrelenting as all
riders have to race at top speed all the time to avoid
being overlapped.
Espiritu, in fact, was not supposed to
compete in the points race. He was entered in the team
pursuit, but head coach Jomel Lorenzo, a bemedalled
track rider himself, thought otherwise.
“The coaching staff felt Victor had the
better chance in the points race because of Steve [Pelaez]
and Ronald [Gorantes]. The points race is the specialty
of Steve and Ronald,” said Lorenzo.
Pelaez, who is credited for the team’s
battle cry, and Gorantes ably backed Espiritu. They
finished ninth and 12th, respectively. “That precisely
was the plan, for them to back each other,” said
Lorenzo.
Extremely disappointed were the Thai
fans that everybody—except for a handful from the local
association of Filipinos in
Thailand—had
left the His Majesty The King’s 80th Birthday
Anniversary velodrome during the awards ceremonies.
Stuck at
‘fifth’
Meanwhile, the golds continued to come in trickles and
the Philippines remained stuck at fifth place in the
overall medals race of the 24th Southeast Asian Games by
sundown here Tuesday.
Alfie Catalan won a second straight
individual pursuit gold medal, the second in track after
Espiritu’s in points race of cycling; Amaya Paz struck
in archery’s women’s individual compound, Julius
Felicisimo Nierras Jr. won in athletics’ men’s 400
meters and the men’s epee team were successful in
fencing—four gold medals that hardly mattered for the
country’s cause.
Thailand was like a runaway train with
92 gold medals to show, making Vietnam look like a
hapless second place with its 46-gold output and
Singapore with its haul of 36 mints.
Perhaps the Philippines could squeeze
its way past Malaysia, which has one more gold with 28,
because swimming and cycling finals where Filipinos are
entered were scheduled late Tuesday.
“Back-to-back na,” said Catalan, the
25-year-old from San Manuel, Pangasinan, who was a
favorite in the event but at one point—in the last 400
meters where he said his legs hurt—gave everyone the
scare when he slowed down a bit.
Catalan won the gold at the velodrome of
the His Majesty The King’s 80th Birthday Anniversary
Main Stadium in four minutes, 48.23 seconds, .36 of a
second faster than silver medalist Amir Mustafa Rusli.
Indonesia’s Projo Waseso bagged bronze with 4:50.87.
“Para sa bayan, para kay Mr. and Mrs.
[Bert] Lina at para kay Bheng [Aphrodite Alvarez, his
girlfriend],” said Catalan, who at six-foot-one hardly
looks like a cyclist.
The cycling team has already achieved
its modest goal of three gold medals. The PhilCycling
has turned to a progressive phase under Bert Lina since
2003 when one gold was won in Vietnam and two in Manila
in 2005.
Paz, on the other hand, nosed out
Indonesian Dellie Threesyadinda, 116-114, in the gold
medal play for the country’s first gold in archery. Earl
Benjamin Yap settled for the men’s compound individual
silver medal after yielding to In Puruhito, also of
Indonesia, 115-112.
Dry turf
The
country’s athletics’ campaign ended with that sole gold
medal from Nierras Tuesday. Nierras clocked 46.56
seconds, nosing out Thailand’s Jukkatip Pujaroen (46.64)
and Malaysia ‘s Muhammad Zaiful Zainal Abiding (46.75).
Athletics fell two gold medals short of
its minimum of seven golds target in these Games. Its
other gold medals came in the men’s 3,000-meter
steeplechase (Rene Herrera), hammer throw (Arniel
Ferrera) and long jump, a Games record (Henry Dagmil),
and in women’s long jump (Marestella Torres).
The men’s epee team won the fourth gold
medal out of fencing. The team, composed of Avelino
Victorino Jr., Wilfredo Vizcayno Jr. and Armando Bernal,
beat a Vietnamese team, 41-33, in Tuesday’s finals.
Fencing closed out also Tuesday with the Philippines
tallying three gold, five silver and six bronze medals
in the sport.
Ten silvers and six bronze medals were
also added to the tally Tuesday, thus rendering as
obviously bleak any hopes for the
Philippines
retaining the overall championship.
Hopes ran high in boxing though as six
men and as many women made it to the gold-medal play.
The Philippines sent six of its 10 bets in men’s boxing
to the finals, and six of its seven women. Thailand ,
however, looked extremely daunting with a boxer each in
the 10 men and seven women final events.
With the overall championship now out of
reach, the Philippines looks to its No. 1 sport—men’s
basketball—as its major consolation in the Games. Good
for only one gold medal but one that matters so much for
the country, the men eye their third straight crown
against
Malaysia
Wednesday. |
