THE Philippines is still waiting for its next gold medal in the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after Sunday went past with the country sans any top hardware to show for.
Prized wushu artist Daniel Parantac and young archer Nicole Tagle had chances to claim gold medals but were not able to take advantage of the opportunities they had.
Mr. Parantac, a two-time SEA Games gold medalist, had a heartbreaking performance in the finals of men’s taijin after scoring 9.56 points to settle outside the medal podium behind Jack Chang Loh of Singapore (9.67 points), Bobie Valentinus Gunawan of Indonesia (9.65 points) and Jun Kai Chan of Singapore (9.62 points).
Ms. Tagle, meanwhile, failed to hold off sharpshooting Indonesian Diananda Choidunis in the women’s individual recurve event to settle for the silver.
The veteran Parantac was expected to top his event but mistakes at the start of his performance cost him valuable points to make a strong case for at least a podium finish.
“His overall performance was very good, but he had difficulty in his landing in the first part that prompted the judges to deduct points from his total score. Had those points were not deducted, he could have surpass the 9.67 points by the gold-medal winner. It was just unfortunate. I think there’s also pressure on his part because he really wants to win his third [SEA Games] gold medal,” said wushu coach Samson Co in assessing the performance of Mr. Parantac.
Fifteen-year-old Tagle, for her part, just could not sustain her good start in her recurve event as she was edged out for the top spot.
The Filipino archer led after the first two ends, 3-1, sharing the points after a tie at 29 in the first and winning the second by a hairline, 28-27 before a stalemate in the third at 29.
But Indonesian Choidunis would not relent in her charge, taking control of the fourth, 29-27, to drag the battle to a deciding fifth set, where her accuracy and precision took their toll to run away with a 28-23 win in the final set to claim the gold, 6-4.
Ms. Tagle’s silver improved the Philippines’ total medal haul to date in the Games to one gold, two silver and two bronze, good for seventh place.
The lone gold medal of the country so far is care off marathoner Mary Joy Tabal, who ruled the 42-km race on Saturday.
STILL IN THE HUNT
But Sunday was not totally lost for the Philippines as boxers Clark Ian Bautista, Mario Fernandez and Eumir Felix made a good account of themselves in their preliminaries to remain in the hunt for major hardware.
Mr. Bautista, the reigning champion in the flyweight class, brushed off the hostile crowd to dominate Abdul Salam Kasim of Malaysia while Mr. Fernandez stopped Maung Nge of Myanmar in the bantamweight division.
Mr. Marcial, meanwhile, scored a unanimous decision victory over Nguyen Manh Cuong of Vietnam in the middleweight class to make it a perfect day for the Alliance of Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP), the country’s national sports association for boxing.
“I’m happy to pass the initial test but we cannot be complacent as the field is very tough,” said Mr. Marcial.
Today the remaining members of the Philippine boxing team — Filipino-British John Marvin, Olympian Charly Suarez and Carlo Paalam — will see action. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo