Beijing Olympics: Day 14 for Team Philippines

It’s a hot and sunny day in Beijing and Team Philippines will end their Olympic stint today with two Pinoys seeing action in taekwondo and diving. Mary Antoinette Rivero touted as the one who has the greatest chance to win the gold will start her fight in the mat at 10am. The other Pinoy, Ryan Rexel Fabrega, will be attempting to reach the semifinals tonight at 7pm in the 10m platform diving.

Ten am rolled and the match between Mary Antoinette Rivero and Sandra Saric started. At the end of round 1, both athletes didn’t score a point. In round 2, Toni scored a defensive kick for 1 point while Sandra scored an offensive kick of 1 point but was given a warning penalty. In round 3, Sandra was able to score 3 defensive kicks to win the match 4 to 1.

Just like Tshomlee, the chance to reach repechage stage was dashed when the eventual champion Hwang Kyungseon of Korea defeated Sandra in the quarterfinals.

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Beijing Olympics: Day 12 for Team Philippines

On the 12th day of the Olympics, Beijing is hot and humid. It feels like it’s going to rain the next day. As for team Philippines, Tshomlee Go will see action at 1145am against Ryan Carneli of Australia.

I don’t have any work in the morning so I’m glad to catch up some sleep. I’ve been waiting for the match between the two of them but wasn’t able to find the channel. I just check the results online and hope for the best.

Around 12 noon, the result came and Ryan defeated Tshomlee 1 to 0. I was so disappointed. I checked the blow by blow account and it seems that Tshomlee wasn’t able to hit his opponent. I was frustrated it seems like watching Tanamor all over again. Everyone was hyping that the boxer and the taekwondo jins have the best chances to get a gold but they’re nowhere near it. I hope Toni would do better this Friday.

Beijing Olympics: Day 11 for Team Philippines

It was a cloudy, humid and hot day here in Beijing. As usual, I’m at the Nest boring myself out waiting for that elusive call. However, at 9:40am, I went up to level 0 and watch the long jump preliminaries. In Group B, our very own Marestella Torres vied for qualifying to the finals.

She was the 16th jumper in her group and with a personal best of 6.86m. I went up that morning rooting for her as if she’s able to jump her personal best, she would be able to qualify to the finals. Jumper after jumper, foul after foul. Then I saw a glimpse of her, warming herself up. Dressed in Philippine colors, I first thought the jumper was from Brazil. However, at the back of her bikini, there stood PHI for Philippines.

First jump.. and there she runs building up a momentum then the hop? She didn’t foul but she only jumped 4.27m. I groaned and said to myself, “ano ba yan! (what was that?)”. I just pray she does better in her next jump. I went back down to the office as it will be quite a wait for her next jump as there are 42 jumpers in all for both groups.

Beijing Olympics: Day 8-10 for Team Philippines

Sorry for the delay in updates. It’s either I’m catching up on sleep or I’m stuck at the Nest with no access. You might wonder how come my update is for day 8-10 right? Well.. Team Philippines is taking a rest in Day 9 & 10 so I just bundle it up into one.

Day 8 in Beijing saw the 2nd blue sky day. I had to come in early as I will watch the boxing matches in the evening. I’m a bit sad to have missed Henry Dagmil’s long jump preliminaries last night.

Henry Dagmil’s entry to long jump was not by qualifying any of the matches but as a requirement made by the IAAF. They required us to send two athletes which we did and both for long jump. Henry entered the event with a personal best of 7.99m. He placed 34th in a field of 38 and missed his best by 0.41m.  He achieved 7.58m in his first jump and fouled the next two jumps.

Team Philippines will be back on Tuesday with long jumper Marestella Torres jumping into action at 9:40am. I’ll take my morning break in time to see her jump and hopefully can get some good shots to post here.

Beijing Olympics: Day 7 for Team Philippines

Day 7 in Beijing. The sun is out and the weather is perfect! Today’s the start of the athletic events and the Olympic park is teeming with people. They even had to control the crowd going in the McDonalds shop after the games.

At 11:15am, I got the chance to watch my first Olympic match, the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Individual All-Around Final. I’ve been a fan of gymnastics since I was young watching Nadia Comaneci putting perfect 10 performances in almost all the events. Today, I watched two US athletes take the gold and silver medal from the Chinese who has been dominating in this sport for the past few days. Nastia Liukin got the gold after performing very well in the beam and uneven bars. Shawn Johnson sneaked in to second with a difficult move in Vault and a flawless performance in Floor Exercise. Yang Yilin placed third after a dismal performance in the Floor Exercise and Vault. It was quite an experience as it’s too difficult to track the athletes as all four apparatus are used one after the other. However, I’m just too happy to be able to see it live and US win.

As for Team Philippines, diver Shiela Mae Perez placed 23 out of a field of 30 and scored 251.15 in the preliminaries. She’s 122.75 points behind Chinese diving princess Guo Jing Jing. In Swimming, Christel Simms was seen in action in Heat #6 of the 50m freestyle. She placed 4th in her heat clocking in at 26.64 seconds. This is slower than her qualifying time of 26.31 seconds. Another swimmer Ryan Arabejo, swam his best and placed third in his heats in the 1500m freestyle clocking in at 15:42.27, slower than his qualifying time of 15:39.86.