Asian Beach Games: Pinoy bets come home empty-handed

OMAN—Thailand handily repelled China’s challenge for the overall championship while 23 athletes from the Philippines returned home without a medal after eight days of competition in the 2nd Asian Beach Games here. The Thais, who pressed the issue after four days of action in a total 14 sports, collected 15 gold, six silver and nine bronze medals to romp off with the championship over China, which tallied 9-5-5. Host Oman salvaged a decent third (5-2-7), while Iraq (3-3-1), Korea (2-3-0), Indonesia (2-2-6), Kuwait (1-3-0), United Arab Emirates (1-2-0) and Malaysia (1-1-0) completed the top 10 cast. Failing to compete in the Guangzhou Asian Games due to an injury, triathlete Lea Coline Langit threw in a mighty last-day effort, but fell a step short of the bronze with 2:13:26.09 behind Japanese Juri Ide (2:06:57.51), Chinese Yi Zhang (2:07:54.00) and Akane Tsuchihashi (2:09:04.00). Another Filipina, Marion Manrobang, placed seventh with 2:23:38.18. In the men’s race, Japan took the gold and bronze through Yuichi Hosoda (1:51:21.06) and Ryosuke Yamamoto (1:53:16.99) while the silver went to Dmitriy Goog of Kazakhstan (1:51:39.89). Filipino entry Nikko Bryan Huelgas was 10th, 8:23.12 behind the winner, while compatriot Philip Jurolan could not finish within the top 20 out of 30 starters. PHL’s lady sepak takraw team also closed out its campaign on a sour note, losing to Vietnam 15-21, 14-21. It was the fourth straight setback for the Filipinas in as many outings. Excitement provided by Robert John Caratti and Carlo de la Torre, who both made the semifinal round of wakeboarding, also fizzled out as they ended fifth and fourth, respectively, in their separate heats of six qualifiers. The outcome was a heartbreaker for the Filipinos, who won two silver and eight bronze medals in the initial staging of the Games in Bali, Indonesia. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV