Team Philippines waited and waited for even a single gold, but it did not come to them as the Friday’s set of competitions drew to a close. The delegation, however, collected three silvers and five bronzes to bring the haul to 115 total.
Here is the tough Day 12 for the country in this episode of At The Games.
Archery: Dela Cruz missed on the bronze
At medal rounds of the recurve events, the last woman standing for the for Team Philippines failed to capture the bronze. Rachelle De Guzman lost to Le Thi Thu Hien, 4-6. The Filipina actually took the first set to lead 2-0, only for the Vietnamese to grab the lead in the next two sets, 4-2. It was a see-saw battle from there with Le emerging victorious.
The recurve archers, who went to the Games with high hopes, had a disappointing finish as they had no medals to bring home.
Cycling: No golden double for Salamat
In the third and final event in the women’s cycling for the Games, individual time trial gold medalist Marella Salamat tried to capture another one. In the end, the 21-year old Games rookie finished in eighth for the women’s mass start road race in 2:49:47. Teammate Avegail Rombaon, also a first-time participant, clocked in at 2:49:43 to finish sixth.
The men takes on the road later today with hopes of making it two golds for the team for this edition of the biennial meet.
Floorball: Team PH is winless in the prelims
It was an arduous day for the Philippine men’s floorball team lost another match, 2-11, against Thailand at the end of the preliminary round action at the ITE Central. The Philippines kept the game close for the first period, trailing by just two goals. The Thais exploded to nine goals in the next two frames for the final tally. The two points of the Nationals came from Ronald Carbonell in the second period, and Mark Polo’s third of the Games in the final canto.
The Philippines will battle Malaysia later for the bronze medal, hoping to turn it around against the latter. Malaysia blanked the Filipinos, 10-0, in their first meeting.
Pencak Silat: Team PH settle for bronzes
It was a tough day for the Philippine pencak silat team as they faltered to progress in the final of their respective tanding weight classes, taking bronze medals in the process, Saturday, at EXPO Hall 2.
In the men’s class A (45-50 kg), Alshamier Ibnohasim lost to Aluwaddin Nur of Indonesia, 5-0. Clyde Joy Baria suffered the same defeat against Nur’s compatriot Wewey Wita. Indonesia, from where the sport came from, made it a sweep against the Filipinos, as Tri Juanda Samsul Bajar also blanked Juanillio Ballesta.
Sailing: Another silver for PH sailors
The Philippine sailing team produced another silver finish at the National Training Centre in the male 470 event, Thursday.
It was not a great start as the female match racing keelboat crew struggled for form in the second stage of the round robin competitions. They lost to Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, in succession, to remain with no points after two stages. Dazer Balanguer consistently held on his fourth place finish up to the medal race, to end up in that position for the male optimist U16 event,
In second place going to the final race, the male 470 tandem of Lester Tayong and Emerson Villena, tried to capture the gold. However, they finished fourth in the medal round. That result is enough for them to nose out Thailand to notch the silver medal with 27 total points.
Taekwondo: Gold medal hopes shut off
Gold medal prospects Levita Ronna Ilao and Francis Aaron Agojo came up short to give the country its second taekwondo gold, Saturday, at EXPO Hall 2.
Agojo started with a bang in as he smothered Cambodia’s Heng Chan Ty in their quarterfinals bout, 35-6, causing a halt in the action in just the second round. Ilao followed it up with a blanking of Laotian Alisa Panyasyli, 12-0, in the same stage of the competitions.
It was in the semifinals where the two took separate paths. Agojo continued his rampage when he defeated Jason Tan Junwe of Singapore, 20-13, to book his place in the final. Ilao settled for the bronze after she lost to Thailand’s Sonkham Chanatip, 4-11.
As the last golden hope of the day, Agojo tried to keep his gold medal match close. It was Nguyen Van Duy who overpowered the Ateneo standout this time as walked away with a rousing 23-9 victory and the title, relegating Agojo to silver.
Tennis: Team PH takes silver and finals berths
It was a positive day for the Philippine tennis team as they gathered a silver medal and progressed to two gold medal matches later today at the Kallang Tennis Centre.
In the men’s doubles semifinals, it was both Thailand-Philippines pairings. In the end, both countries had a representative in the final match. Thailand’s Sonchat Ratiwatana and Sanchai Ratiwatana edged Francis Casey Alcantara and Treat Huey, 6-4 4-6 10-8, to move on to the next round. Reuben Gonzales and Jeson Patrombon eked out a similar three-set win over Warit Sornbutnark and Kittipong Wachiramanowong, 2-6 7-6 10-8, to take one for the Philippines.
Defending mixed doubles champions Huey and partner Denise Dy grabbed their chance to defend their title after playing great tennis over Tamarine Tanasugarn and Sa. Ratiwatana, 6-2 6-3, in the semifinals. Dy had a great day amassing three wins in the day. The veteran and her women’s doubles pair Katharina Lehnert romped Indonesia’s Ayu Damayanti and Lavinia Tananta, 6-4 6-4, and survived Tanasugarn and Peangtarn Plipuech, 1-6 6-2 10-8, to advance to medal rounds as well.
At the final match of the day. it was the Ratiwana twins who emerged victorious in the men’s doubles gold medal match, 6-4 6-4, against Gonzales and Patrombon. The Thais had a break of the serve in each set, which spelled the difference in the battle. Patrombon had problems on his first serve throughout the match, but the Filipinos hang on to hold on their service games. The twins just played more aggressively in the two games that they broke the Philippines duo’s serve.
Bowling: Philippines competes in Women’s Masters, ends block 1 with polar opposite finish
Entering the lanes once again for the fourth consecutive day of the 2015 SEAG Bowling Tournament, competitors representing their respective countries were up for a bigger challenge, as they finally compete with the best players their opposing countries can field, entering the first block of the Masters match at the Orchard Country Club.
Completely ignoring the Men’s Masters matches, the Philippines only competed in Women’s Masters matches fielding in the three highest scoring women of Team Philippines, Krizziah Tabora, Lisa del Rosario, and Alexis Marie Sy; who proved to be some of the most instrumental players in the bronze medals won in both Women’s Trio and the Women’s group of 5 matches from the previous days.
Initially engaged in a sluggish start, it seemed that the bad luck that was avoided in the past two days, were once again creeping back as Tabora and del Rosario were starting off slow only to be joined by Sy soon after the first game. Thankfully, however, the curse was only temporary when a revived Tabora soon retaliated delivering high scores in games 5, 6, 7, and 8 to land at an amazing second place finish for the first block with a score of 1744, 157 points shy of first place.
Her powerful efforts, however, sadly seemed one-sided despite a strong performance in her fourth game. Del Rosario failed to get in winning form as she lands at 13th place with 1608 points, while Sy, who never got to recover after her strong start, landed at end of the pack at 16th after a total score of 1523.
No medals were awarded on the fourth day of the 2015 SEAG Bowling tournament as it was only the first round for the Masters matches.
Rowing: Opportunity for a medal
Two men took part in the day’s rowing competition, with both progressing to the Finals of their respective events. Justine Karyle finished the men’s lightweight single with a record of 3:41.65 for a third place finish. Meanwhile, Nestor Cordova, who took part in the men’s single sculls, completed the race with a 3:35.40 record, and he too finished third in his event. Both Pinoys have the opportunity to get a medal for the Philippines in the last day of their events.
Sepak Takraw: Pinoys take home bronze
In the men’s regu group A match, team Philippines, which consisted of Regie Reznan Pabriga, Rhemwil Catana, John John Bobier, Ronsited Gabayeron, and John Jeffrey Morcillos lost to a gritty Singapore squad, 21-13, and 21-11. Despite the loss, the team from the Philippines was able to take home a bronze medal for their efforts.
Water Polo: Team PH Experience Contrasting Losses
It was a tough day for Philippine water polo as both the men’s (Gators) and women’s (Sirens) teams remained winless after four days. The Sirens faced defending champions Singapore in what turned out to be a shooting spree for the hosts. The Gators matched well with Thailand, but ended flat as the Thais broke away in the endgame.
A frustrated Sirens coach Dale Evangelista was issued a yellow card | Screenshot from Sport Singapore
Coming off a heartbreaking one-point loss to Malaysia in their debut game, the Sirens found it harder to get their offense going as Singapore blitzed them on their way to a 10-1 score in the first period. Only captain Bea Felise Garrido was able to get through the goal during that period. The Sirens settled down on defense in the second period but still yielded another ten goals till the end of the game while they were only able to produce one, courtesy of Carla Beatriz Grabador. The final score stood at 20-2 in what could be the most forgettable outing for the Sirens in the games.
Goalkeeper Tani Gomez Jr. singlehandedly kept the score close | Screenshot from Sport Singapore
On the other hand, the Gators went up against a Thai squad that was pretty much within reach most of the game. Behind the stellar defense of goalkeeper Tani Gomez Jr., the Gators were able to keep it close until the third period which ended at 6-8, in favor of the Thais. Scoring was spread across five different players for the Gators. However, the Gators lost steam in the fourth period as they were blanked while Thailand added another two goals en route to a final score of 6-10. The crisp passing of the Thais proved to be lethal for the Gators as they recorded their third straight loss in as many games.
Both the Sirens and Gators return to the OCBC Aquatic Centre on June 14 to face Thailand (2:30pm) and Singapore (8:00pm), respectively.
