Ageless Padilla wins shooting gold in 16th SEAG appearance

Tac Padilla proved he can still pull the trigger after giving shooting its first and only gold in the 25th Laos Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane. The 45-year old topped his pet event, the 25m rapid fire, by scoring a total of 753.20 points on the final day of action in shooting competitions at the National Sports Complex.

The golden performance, which Padilla did through the use of his brand new Pardini 22 caliber pistol, averted what could have been the worst showing of the Filipino shooters in the region’s biggest sporting stage. "Masayang-masaya," said the soft-spoken pistolero. "I’m not only happy for myself but for the whole team because we proved this will not be the worst performance by a Philippine shooting team." Seeing action in his 16th straight SEA Games, Padilla turned back Malaysian Hazli Iswan and Singapore’s Pham Cao Son, who both came up with identical scores of 749.90. Iswan, however, copped the silver by topping the shoot-off, 48.2-47.7. The Filipino shooters failed to win a gold in the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand, but won a handful of silver and bronze medals, including one by Padilla in the same rapid fire event where, a similar Pardini 22 caliber pistol worth P120,000, malfunctioned during the competitions. "For me, this was a vindication," said Padilla, recalling the sorry incident in Korat two years ago. "First time kong hindi nakapag-uwi ng kahit na anong medalya during that SEA Games. Kaya Masaya talaga ako ngayon," he added. Padilla previously won gold medals during the 1979, 1983, 1987 and 1993 edition of the biennial event. He also had a long standing record of winning a SEA Games medal of any color from 1979 until 2005. "Sabi nila matanda na tayo, pero eto, pumuputok pa rin," said Padilla, who won his first international gold medal as a 12-year old during the Benito Juarez junior competition in Mexico. This one didn’t come easy as since on his shoulders lie the last glimmer of hope for an RP team still in search of any kind of medal. "Aaminin ko, sa lahat ng SEA Games na napuntahan ko dito ako nakaramdam ng nerbiyos. Sobrang pressure talaga," said the man who landed a distant sixth in last Thursday's 25m standard pistol. "Experience na lang siguro ang nagtawid sa akin." Shortly after his victory, the first person Padilla called was his dad, two-time Olympian Tom Ong, whom the former competed with in every SEA Games from 1977 to 1997. "Una ko siyempreng tinawagan, si Papa," related Padilla, before revealing another recipient of his call: his 18-year-old daughter Mica, who returned to Manila after her SEA Games pistol event in time for her high school exams at the Assumption College. "Tuwang-tuwa si Papa. Si Mica nagsisisigaw," said Padilla. – GMANews.TV