INCHEON, South Korea—The gold continued to elude Filipino bets in taekwondo, with Mary Anjelay Pelaez settling for another bronze medal in the women’s -46kg in the 17th Asian Games on Wednesday.
Pelaez started strongly with a 3-0 rout of Myanmar’s Nway Nway but fell, 2-14, to Kim Sohui of host South Korea in the semifinals.
The bronze was the third from taekwondo after those Samuel Thomas Harper Morrison clinched in men’s -74kg and Levita Ronna Ilao in women’s -49kg.
Two other jins fought on Wednesday but both fell by the wayside.
Pretty Pauline Louise Lopez yielded a 0-3 decision to China’s Wang Yun in the women’s -57kg round-of-16 and Christian Al de la Cruz lost to Uzbekistan’s Maksim Rafalovic by a hair, 10-9, in the quarterfinals of the men’s -80kg division.
De la Cruz provided hope for the gold when he hurdled Qatari Mahmoud Hamdy Abdelrahim in the round-of-16, 8-2, in the quarterfinals of taekwondo staged at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium.
Only veteran John Paul Lizardo and Francis Aaron Agojo are left to fight for the gold medal. Lizardo faces Lao PDR’s Thipphakone Kuangmany in the men’s -52kg round-of-32 and Agojo battles Myanmar’s Shein Naing Dwe in the men’s -58kg round-of-16 on Friday.
Coach Roberto Cruz, meanwhile, rued the ugly punch that denied Morrison a chance to hand the Philippines a medal better than a bronze on Tuesday that left him badly injured.
A questionable punch by Masoud Hajizavareh of Iran to Morrison’s neck abruptly ended their semifinal duel middle in the second round.
The punch sent Morrison down and writhing in pain, prompting a visit to the Philippine medical team that attended to his complaints of numbing pain on the left part of his neck, nape and his whole left arm.
Cruz said he did not have the opportunity to protest what he deemed as an illegal punch after he had used up the blue card that he had surrendered for a protest he had earlier raised.
Cruz said referee Wang Wen Hsien of Chinese Taipei should have called a gang-jeom and deducted a point against the Iranian, who was declared a 5-1 semifinal winner while Morrison was still on the floor.