INCHEON, South Korea—Taekwondo could only produce two bronze medals on Tuesday, making the gold medal as elusive as expected against a field of world-class athletes in the 17th Asian Games.
Samuel Thomas Morrison started strong, but his string of victories could only reach the semifinals. He lost to Iran’s Masoud Hajizarvareh, 5-1, in the men -72 kg for the country’s third medal four days after Paul Martin de la Cruz clinched the Philippines’s last from the men’s compound of archery. Morrison was later hospitalized for what appeared to be a broken left clavicle.
Rona Ilao Levita also could not go beyond the semifinals to also settle for a bronze in the women’s -49 kg, after losing to China’s Li Zhaoyi, 5-1.
With the two silver medals from wushu and four bronze medals, the Philippines stood at 26th place in the tally board mighty China has dominated since Day One, with an unreachable 123-79-60 gold-silver-bronze haul. Host South Korea was a far second, with 54-53-60; and Japan third, with 37-554-55.
But Wednesday could turn out as a golden day if Daniel Caluag would live up to the hype and expectations in BMX cycling.
Caluag, the 2013 Asian champion, will race against seven other riders, including UCI-ranked cyclists from Japan and Indonesia. The Filipino-American veteran of the London 2012 Olympics is unranked by the UCI for not racing in any world-ranking race in the past 16 months.
Caluag will be racing alongside younger brother Christopher, hoping to win the country’s first gold medal, with only four days of competitions left on the Incheon program.
The boxers, meanwhile, continued to show promises for a gold, with Olympian Mark Anthony Barriga and Mario Fernandez advancing to the semifinals and assure the country of two more bronze medals.
Barriga took out pesky Hasanboy Dusmatov of Kazakhstan, 2-1, in the light-flyweight division; and Fernandez eliminated India’s Shiva Thapa, 3-0, in the bantamweight class to secure not only bronze medals but shots at the gold medal alongside lightweight Charly Suarez in the semifinals on Thursday.
Wilfredo Lopez was the fourth Filipino seeking to advance to the semifinals in the middleweight
class also of boxing. He was scheduled to fight Shinebayar Narmandakh of Mongolia late Tuesday.
And yes, Gilas Pilipinas.
The Filipino dribblers will be making their last gasp for what remains of their pride and what’s left of the glory they never saw in Incheon, when they take on a dangerous Mongolia in the battle for seventh place in the men’s basketball competitions.
Relegated to the consolation round because of controversy-laced three successive defeats, the Filipino dribblers face a surprisingly tall and agile Mongolian crew at 3:15 p.m. on Monday.