Ochoa beats compatriot Napolis for podium finish; PH boxers scale ring
JAKARTA — The Philippines produced a bronze medal Friday to break a dry spell in the 2018 Asian Games. But it wasn’t the color everyone wanted to lay their eyes on.
Meggie Ochoa of jiu-jitsu joined gymnast Carlos Yulo on the growing list of Filipino athletes earlier christened as sure gold medalists when she could only settle for the bronze medal in the 49 kg class.
Ochoa, a former world champion and multi-titled martial artist, beat another Filipino bet, Kaila Napolis, 2-0, to snare the bronze.
It was a disappointing finish for Ochoa, who assured the role of favorite on the strength of her top finishes overseas the last few months.
Vietnam’s Thi Thanh Minh ruined Ochoa’s gold hopes in the quarterfinals when she won by advantage.
Ochoa admitted that Minh deserved the verdict even though she had beaten the Viet before.
“She knew what I was going to do. She surprised me. She did something that I didn’t expect. She got me this time and she neutralized my game,” said Ochoa.
Ochoa’s bronze was hardly felt in the leaderboard as the Philippines, as of this writing, even dropped to 20th place with a gold-silverbronze tally of 1-0-6, way behind leaders China (6041-23), Japan (27-29-37) and Korea (20-23-28) and even Southeast Asian rivals and fifth placer Indonesia (9-813), eighth Thailand (6-4-20), 15th place Singapore (2-1-6), 16th Vietnam (1-5-9) and 18th Malaysia (1-3-1).
Yulo, who faltered in his favorite floor exercise on Thursday, tried his luck in the vault and narrowly missed the bronze with a fourth place finish.
Shek Wai Hung of Hong Kong took the gold with a score of 14.612 while Kim Hansol of Korea, who topped the floor exercise, settled for the silver with a 15.550. The bronze went to Agus Prayoko of Indonesia with a 14.125. Yulo garnered 13.662, ending his bid.
The Philippines resumes its campaign Saturday with boxing making its move in the preliminaries.
Mario Fernandez meets Al Sudani Jaafar of Iraq in the 56 kg class (bantamweight) after feather Nesthy Petecio (57 kg) and welter Joel Bacho (69 kg) made their respective debut late Thursday.
A hostile crowd will be on hand when the celebrated women’s volleyball squad faces the host country, nursing hopes that a victory over the 2017 Southeast Asian Games silver medalist will gave them the much-needed boost in the quarterfinals.
Fresh from a straight sets win over perennial victim Hong Kong, the Philippines is on a collision course with superpower China and Korea. “This is a must-win game for us, especially if they want to return to the medal podium in the 30th SEAG next year (in the Philippines),” said head coach Shaq Delos Santos. Based on what the Indonesians have been doing lately, Delos Santos feels upbeat that the Philippines has what it takes to spoil their fun. “I don’t want to sound overconfident, but learning that they (Indonesians) lost a set to Hong Kong is already a sign that they are beatable,” he said. “If we’re going to display the same kind of grit and power we showed last Thursday, winning over Indonesia is very possible.” Against Hong Kong Wednesday, the Philippines won by scores of 25-18, 25-21, 25-22. Meanwhile, Fil-Am BMX rider Daniel Caluag’s bid to retain the Asian Games crown will be threatened by two former Asian champions when competitions kick of at the Jakarta International BMX Tracks.