KUALA LUMPUR—The gold continued to elude Filipino archers, who settled for a pair of bronze medals in the men’s and women’s team recurve events of the archery competition of the 29th Southeast Asian Games at the National Sports Center Synthetic Turf Field here on Monday.
Pinoy marksmen Florante Matan, Gabriel Moreno and Mark Javier had the misfortune of drawing hometown favorite Malaysia in the semifinals and were completely outclassed, 0-6 (54-57, 53-58, 49-52).
The Malaysians beat the Thais, 6-0, for the gold medal.
The Filipinos vented their ire on the Vietnamese, 6-0, (50-49, 55-54, 54-53) in securing the men’s team bronze.
It was same story Pinay hawkeyes Nicole Marie Tagle, Mary Queen Ybanez and Kareel Meer Hongitan, who were ambushed by Indonesia, 2-6, (50-52. 55-54, 54-56, 52-55) in the semis.
They shut out Vietnam, 6-0, (51-44, 50-47, 55-47) for the women’s team bronze.
Meanwhile, five Filipino squash players were involved in a vehicular accident while on their way to the competition venue Monday at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium here.
Team manager Vince Abad Santos said after being stalled on the highway for about 45 minutes “we were picked up by the bus carrying our track and field athletes who were also headed for Bukit Jalil.”
“We were bumped from behind by the other bus very fast because the driver apparently was unable to step on the breaks on time,” said Abad Santos, who was on the bus when the accident happened, in an interview at the National Squash Center.
“Muntik na po tumama ang ulo ko sa head rest nong upuan sa harap ko,” recalled squash player Reymark Bigornia. “Buti na lang napigilan ko. Pero masakit din sa leeg.”
Other squash players on the same bus were David William Paulino, Juan Rafael Yam and Robert Andrew Garcia.
“It’s a good thing that nobody among our team was injured because they were in front of the bus,” noted squash head Robert Bachmann.
Due to the incident, the morning matches were suspended and moved to 2 pm.
City Traffic Investigation and Legal Affairs staff officer Deputy Supt. Shafie Daud said the incident happened around 7:50 am near Sungai Besi Toll Plaza heading towards Kesas Highway.
He said a motorcycle swerved the bus, prompting it to make an abrupt break that led the vehicle from behind to hit its rear end.
Aside from the Filipinos, 13 athletes from Thailand, 10 from Myanmar were also on board.
They, however, were transferred to a replacement bus and safely arrived at the venue.