PALEMBANG — Veteran rower Nestor Cordova opened what could be another eventful day in the 26th Southeast Asian Games when he topped the men’s singles sculls event at the Cipule Regatta Course in East Karawang, West Java Wednesday.
The 34-year-old veteran from Murcia, Negros Occidental clocked 7:18.810 to beat Chaicha Thakum of Thailand
(7:21.660) and Aung Ko Min of Myanmar (7:25.320) and clinch the country’s 15th gold medal.
Cordova, the 5-foot-11 petty officer third class of the Navy, earned his first SEAG gold medal after bagging silver with Alvin Amposta in the doubles sculls event during the 1997 edition.
He was chosen by Lithuanian coach Rolandas Kaszlauskas over Benjie Tolentino who won this event three consecutive times since 2003.
Earlier, Edgar Recana Ilas and Amposta finished third in the men’s doubles sculls for the bronze.
The Philippines also won two silvers and bronze elsewhere as it presses its bid for more victories in wrestling, bowling and fencing later in the day.
Grandmaster John Paul Gomez settled for the silver medal in the chess blindfold event despite finishing tied for the lead with GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam.
Gomez bounced back from his first defeat at the hands of Le by trouncing Tirta Chandra Purnama in the last round to finish the nine-round event with 7 points.
Le was held to a draw by Malaysian Mok Tze Meng, but won the gold via winner-over-the-other rule.
GM Darwin Laylo took the bronze with 5.5 points.
Before his loss in the penultimate round, Gomez was leading the tournament with 6 points, half-a-point ahead of Le.
It marked the first time a blindfold event was held in the Games.
The players sat on the opposite end of the table with an empty chessboard. Beside them sat two arbiters playing their moves. A divider separates the players from the arbiters.
Moves are written on paper to be showed before they punch the clock. Each player is given 20 minutes each to finish the match.
Players are allowed only two illegal moves. A third would mean a loss. They are also prohibited to leave the table even if they need to go to the comfort room.
GM Joey Antonio, showing unfamiliarity with Asean chess, finished out of the medal podium. It was one of two silvers won by the Philippines halfway through Day 5 of the Games.
Early in the day, Eric Panique and Eduardo Buenavista finished second and third, respectively in the men’s marathon while Jho-an Banayag came in fourth in the women’s race.
Panique clocked 2:28.26, a little over a second behind Indonesian winner Yahuza. Buenavista collapsed after checking in third in 2:29.09 and had to be rushed to the hospital.
Indonesia completed a sweep of the marathon courtesy of Triyaningsih.
Comments
Post a Comment