POOLED REPORT
INCHEON, Korea—Nestor Colonia faded in front of his world and Olympic champion rivals, failing to lift the wheeled bar thrice and surrendering his hopes of giving the Philippines its first medal in the 17th Asian Games here along with the chance to qualify for the Rio de Jainero Olympics in 2016.
Colonia did not succeed in his three attempts, which Chief of Mission Ricardo ‘Ritchie’ Garcia described was a washout, leaving the 22-year old weightlifter with nothing but broken hopes after his failure to advance from his previous ranking of sixth in the Asian level.
Colonia’s coach and uncle Gregorio Colonia earlier expressed confidence his wards would be able to keep the No. 6 ranking he earned in 2010 in the Guangzhou Games.
But it was not to be.
“Hindi talaga kinaya e,” said Garcia. “All three attempts, nahirapan siya.”
Nestor Colomia failed to lift 120 kgs in his first three attempts in the snatch of the men’s 56-kg class.
Colonia had to watch Vietnamese champion Kim Tuan Thach break the Asian record with 134 kgs in the snatch and paired it with a 160 in the clean and jerk for a front-running 290 total in the qualifiers.
The battles for medals are still going on at press time.
A member of the medical staff who helped monitor Colonia said the lifter had no injuries and appeared to be in good condition prior to his event.
A ray of hope, however, was seen in wushu when Jean Claude Saclag defeated Lin Tun Kyaw of Myanmar, 2-0, to advance into the quarterfinals of the men’s Sanda -60kgs.
Divine Wally also advanced to the next round via a 2-0 win over Ho Yee Chao of Hong Kong.
The netters had an easy time disposing of their rivals from Mongolia.
But JP Tierro said they will have to brace for today’s matches against stronger rivals from Chinese-Taipei, denying them of a chance to at least bask in their triumph Saturday.
“Mabigat ang kalaban bukas, we need to be ready against them,” said Tierro after his 6-4, 6-2 beating of Erdenebayar Duurenbayar that already clinched the win for the Philippines after the 6-4, 6-2 first match win by Ruben Gonzales, Jr. over Badrakh Munkhbaatar.
Gonzales later teamed up with Treat Condrad Huey to plaster Oyunbat Baatar and Sukhjargal Suukbaatar in the doubles, 6-0, 6-0, which no longer mattered.
Veteran Benjamin Tolentino will figure in the repechage today to determine his chances in the lightweight men’s singles sculls of rowing.
Tolentino checked in at seven minutes and 37.05 seconds which was good for fourth behind finalists Kwan Hoi Lok of Hong Kong (7:17.78) and Cholhun Pak of Pakistan (7:24.30).
Tolentino will be up against third placed Artyom Kurdyashov of Uzbekistan and Lihn van Nguyen of Vietnam to determine his qualification.
Badreddin Almabruk Mohammad Almadani of Qatar was excluded.
The pair of Edgar Ilas and Nestor Cordova barely made it to the finals of the lightweight men’s doubles sculls, placing third behind Japanese pair Takahiro Suda and Hideki Omoto and the Indian tandem of Roonpedra Singh and Manjeet Singh.
Ilas and Cordova will also fight for their places against the tandems of Arief Arief and Thomas Hallatu (Indonesia) and Tanveer Arif and Muhammad Maood of Pakistan.
Shooters Hagen Alexander Topacio and Eric Ang also need to catch up with the leaders after Day 1 of the men’s trap competition.
Andrey Mogilevskiy of Kazakhstan and Mohammad Aldeehani Fehaid of Kuwait are on top after three rounds with 74s, followed by the bunch of 72s from Hamad Ahmad Bin Alkendi of UAE, Manajavit Singh Sandhu of India, Alfaihan Abdulrahman of Kuwait, Du Yu of China and Walid El Najjar of Lebanon from third to seventh places.
Topacio was at far 33rd place with two rounds left today. He had a 65 on rounds of 22, 21 and 22.
Ang was even farther at 40th place with 63 on rounds of three 21s.
Gilbert Ramirez tries to advance into the quarterfinals against Dastan Ykybayeb of Kazakhstan in the men’s 73-kg of judo, while women’s 63-kg entry Kiyomi Watanabe aims for the same spot against Gulnar Hayybayeva of Turkmenistan.
Jessie Lacuna aims to set a fast time in the first heat of men’s 200-m freestyle in swimming.
Clemente Tabugara battles Mohsen Mohammadseifi of Iran in the men’s Sanda -65 kgs of wushu.
