Caluag bronze lifts Phl’s dying hopes
JAKARTA – From the Convention Center to the Expo Hall, loud Philippine chants rang in Indonesia’s impressive BMX park this time where titleholder Daniel Patrick Caluag held his own against young challengers to sustain the contingent’s streak of medal hits in the 18th Asian Games here.
Caluag failed to repel a rising Japanese star and the reigning SEA Games champion, but willed himself to salvage the bronze medal as he gave Team Phl a little push in the medal tally which incldes the gold medal of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz plus a total of seven bronzes.
On a day the minnows stayed on the sidelines, the Goliaths of Asian sports continued their golden hunts, claiming the lion’s share even as more medals were yet to be disputed until late last night. At sundown, China was the runaway overall leader with a 72-50-30 gold-silver-bronze tally while Japan (3431-44), Korea (25-26-33), Iran (14-11-9) and Indonesia (10-12-16) kept their 2-34-5 position.
Thailand remained the best Southeast Asian team behind the host with 8-8-24, then came Singapore (2-2-6) and new fourth placer Cambodia (2-0-1) which struck a gold each from jetski and ju-jitsu.
Malaysia and the Philippines dropped to fifth and sixth with 1-4-2 and 1-0-7, respectively.
The other top performers for the day were the lady golfers led by reigning national champ Yuka Saso and pencak silat bet Cherry Mae Regalado who advanced to the women’s single preliminary group A final.
Over at the GOR Bulungan Hall, the Phl volley belles’ gritty stand proved not enough against the home team, dropping a four-setter, 20-25, 20-25, 26-24, 22-25. Two other pencak silat warriors in Dines Dumaan and Jefferson Rhey Loon fight for a spot in the gold-medal bouts today while some of the 272-strong contingent have started leaving camp.
The fencing, gymnastics, softball, swimming and wushu teams flew home yesterday. Gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz is still
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