By REY C. LACHICA
HANGZHOU, China – After Alex Eala’s incredible showing in tennis, focus will shift on superstar EJ Obiena on Saturday, Sept. 30, with the world No. 2 looking to end the country’s agonizing wait for a first ever gold medal in the 19th Asian Games here.
Barring any disaster or calamity of great proportion, this year’s edition could be Obiena’s coronation as Asian pole vault king.
Reasons abound why her is eager to stamp his class this time.
For one, he is eager to erase the ugly memory of the 2018 edition in Jakarta, Indonesia where he finished a disappointing 7th place.
So expect Obiena to soar like an eagle and deliver the gold medal every Filipino is aching to see dangling around his neck.
Team PH is still way, way behind in the medal board – even among South East Asian rivals – at 24th with 1 silver and six bronze medals. The host nation is nearing the century mark with 96 golds while Thailand is fifth overall with 8 golds at 5 p.m. PH also trails Indonesia (3-3-10), Singapore (2-4-4), Malaysia (2-3-6), and Vietnam (1-2-11).
“One last push for this season,” said Obiena in his official facebook with a video footage that saw him clear the barrier with relative ease.
Philippine Olympic Committee chief Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino is supremely confident that the long wait will be over Saturday, saying: “With good vibes, it’s sure for gold. His competitions this year has prepared him well.”
In an earlier interview, Obiena said: “My aim is to win, that’s the goal.”
While he is as tagged the overwhelming favorite, Obiena is not taking any chances, knowing he has a huge target on his back apart from battling jetlag.
Pressure is heavy, no doubt about it, but he is taking it as a privilege to achieve greatness.
Eala, meantime, joined the exclusive club of multiple medal winners in a single edition with another bronze medal finish in the mixed doubles to cap an incredible showing.
Eala and partner Francis Alcantara lost to Taiwanese Liang En-Shuo and Huang Tsung-hao, 5-7, 3-6, but that was enough to salvage the bronze medal, making them the first PH team to win a mixed doubles medal since Patricia Yngayo and Federico Deyro captured the silver medal in the 1966 edition.
“If overachievement is a thing then we have the potential to do more,” beamed the 18-year-old Eala, who on Thursday took the bronze in the singles event that ended the country’s 17-year medal drought in tennis.
Apart from Obiena, also in spotlight are Gilas and Filipinas with the former going up against dangerous Jordan at 5:30 p.m.
Jordan is bannered by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, the very same import that helped power TNT to the PBA championship this year.
Gilas hopes to use the 96-63 win of Gilas Women over Hong Kong at SX Olympic Gym as an extra push.
Not fortunate this time was the men’s 3×3 squad which suffered a 21-12 defeat to Mongolia that relegated the PH dribblers to the qualification for the quarters spot
Filipinas will have a tougher assignment as they collide with Asian champion Japan at 7: 30 p.m.
Meantime, Team PH’s bid to beat or even duplicate its four-gold haul in the Jakarta Games suffered a big blow when Tokyo Games silver medal winner Nesthy Petecio suffered a 4-1 defeat to long-time rival Taiwanese Lin Yu Ting.
The defeat was doubly painful for Petecio as it denied her outright berth to the Paris Olympics.
While the host nation is all poised for another runaway championship, losses continued to pile up for Team PH as triathletes Fernando Casares and Andrew Kim Remolino finished 10th and 13th, respectively.
Weightlifting competitions also commence Saturday with Rosegie Ramos seeing right away in the wmen’s 49kg.
Shooter Jayson Valdez ended up 40th and last in the men’s 50m rifle 3 poisitions while Franchette Quiroz wound up 29th in the women’s 10-m air pistol event.and Softball Sports Centre, the Blu Girls suffered a 9-2 defeat to defending champion at the start of the Super Round, putting their medal bid in peril.
Meanwhile, the Filipina tankers set a Philippine record in the 4x200m freestyle by posting 8:12.80 seconds in finishing fifth on Thursday, Sept. 28.
However, they were 23.46 second behind eventual winner China, has already collected 25 golds going into the final day.
In chess, Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna tallied 5.5 points after 9 rounds and finished 9th overall in the women’s rapid category on Wednesday, already an achievement being seeded only at No. 17.
IM Paulo Bersamina, seeded 21st, likewise settled for 9th place in the men’s side after posting 5.0 points with WIM Maria Antoinette San Diego, who was ranked 16th, wound up 19th after collecting 4.5 points.
