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With Asiad medals remain elusive for RP, should we settle with just big-fat eggs and nasty finger-pointing when it’s over?
| Cat: Badminton ,Baseball ,Bowling ,Chess ,Cycling ,FEATURES ,Gymnastics ,Philippine Sports ,Swimming ,Weightlifting | 
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DOHA, Qatar — While the Philippines was anxiously waiting for its first medal Wednesday, China was wondering how to pay for its excess baggage when it returns home from the 15th Asian Games.
Less than six days into the Games, the Chinese have already won 66 gold medals, surpassing the 56 golds the Filipinos collected since 1951. And they are barely warming up.
The Chinese are expected to claim another bagful of medals in gymnastics and swimming later in the day.
Mercifully, bowling is not China’s cup of tea.
Under tremendous pressure to hand the country its first medal, Paeng Nepomuceno, Chester King and Tyrone Ongpauco were playing the last three games of the trio event, hoping to sustain the searing pace they set Tuesday.
Nepomuceno had a near perfect game to power his team to second place at the end of the first bloc. He shot lines of 246, 196, 298 to shoot the day’s best score of 740.
Together with King’s 644 and Ongpauco’s 605, the Filipinos amassed 1989, just nine points behind Malaysians Heng Boon Hian, Aaron Kong and Daniel Lim.
Another RP squad composed of Christian Jan Suarez, Markwin Tee and Biboy Rivera was running 10th with 1822.
Earlier, the team of Liza del Rosario, Marianne Posadas and Josephine Canare ended seventh in the women’s trio, combining for 3664, 319 off South Korea’s winning score.
Hopes are also high in gymnastics where Roel Ramirez was eyeing the country’s first-ever medal in gymnastics. He was competing in the horse vault event at presstime.
“Roel is in high spirits. He seems relaxed. Ako pa nga ang ninenerbyos,” said national coach Santiago Ty.
Save for bowling and gymnastics, there was nothing to cheer about.
The national baseball team took an embarrassing 8-1 loss at the hands of Thailand, capping an unforgettable week of five straight losses.
The Japanese-trained Thais settled the issue with eight hits on top of the final inning, producing seven runs in the process.
Filipino cyclists finished eighth in the men’s team time trial, clocking 1:31:44.98. Kazakhstan, Iran and Japan took the first three positions.
A consolation of sorts, the Filipinos edged Malaysia in a battle of Southeast Asian rivals. The Malaysians checked in 12th.
Filipino chessers get a chance to redeem themselves from their poor performance in the last SEA Games when they battle regional champion Vietnam at the start of the mixed team classical event.
Also Wednesday, welterweight Frances Joven was set to fight Thai Angkhan Chomphuphuang for a seat in the boxing quarterfinals while the pair of Kennie Asuncion and Kennevic Asuncion began their campaign in badminton.
Lifter Renante Briones did not finish his campaign in men’s 105-kilogram division.
Filipino swimmers smashed two national records Tuesday night, but could still not produce a medal.
Miguel Molina swam the first leg of the 4 x 100-meter relay in 51.66 seconds, breaking the old standard of the now retired Ryan Papa (52.3 seconds).
The relay team, also made up of Daniel Coakley, James Walsh and Uy, finished sixth, but its time of 3:31 now stands as a national mark.
On Wednesday, Molina qualified to the final of the 200-meter individual medley by finishing sixth in the morning heats.
The United States-trained swimmer clocked 2:08.18, 3.56 seconds behind top qualifier Hidemasa Sano of Japan.
Marichi Gandionco finished third in the first final of the 800-meter freestyle event with a time of 9:14.80.
The second final will be held Wednesday evening.
The rest of the RP hopefuls failed to qualify in their respective events.
Denjylie Cordero wound up 10th in the women’s 200-meter breastroke (2:41.41), Kendrick Uy placed 16th in the men’s 100-meter freestyle (52.83) and Erica Totten struggled at 15th in the women’s 100-meter freestyle (59.44).
The Filipinos ended their campaign in rowing by taking fifth place in the men’s double sculls and ninth in the men’s lightweight double sculls.
Benjamin Tolentino Jr. and Jose Rodriguez topped the men’s double sculls final B, clocking 3:22.49, beating Chinese-Taipei, Japan and Hong Kong.
In the men’s lightweight double sculls, Alvin Amposta and Nilo Cordova ended up last in the three-team Final C with a time of 3:36.96.
Over at the Lusail shooting range, Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla finished 17th in the 25-meter rapid fire pistol qualification, firing 566, 14 points behind top qualifier Zhang Penghui of China.
