NAGOYA — The Philippines had a slow, gloomy day following failed attempts of taekwondo jin Allain Ganapin, thrower Alyana Nuñez and high jumper Wilson Sante, Jr. to snatch a medal in the 5th Asian Para Games on Wednesday.
Mr. Ganapin ran into Paralympics silver medalist Mahdi Pourrahnamaahmad of Iran in the quarterfinals and lost, then blew an early lead and succumbed to Uzbekistan’s Otabek Amatov in the repechage of the men’s K44 -80-kilogram division at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Stadium.
It was another heartbreaker for the 28-year-old Marikina City native, who qualified to the Tokyo Paralympics five years ago but got hit by COVID-19 just a few days before his scheduled flight to the Japanese capital.
Mr. Ganapin’s coach, Gershon Bautista, said it was just a tough field.
“Talagang as mentioned before, it was a good shot but all these athletes all qualified here,” he said.
Ms. Nuñez, for her part, went for a medal but wound up fourth in the women’s discus throw F11 with a 28.77-meter (m) heave at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, which was just beside where Mr. Ganapin fell.
Rosalie Torrefiel also saw action in the same event but finished eighth and last with a 21.58 m.
Same with Mr. Sante, who ended up tied for fourth with Bangladeshi Md Salem Reza with 1.83 m each in the men’s high jump F11 class.
He finished just a fraction of a meter behind eventual bronze winner Temurbek Giyazov of Uzbekistan with a 1.86 m.
The shutout left the Philippines, which was bankrolled by the Philippine Sports Commission, stagnant at 15th with a 2-1-1 harvest.
Also falling were Wilfredo Bungayong and Marlyn Garrucho in fencing, Nikko Peralta and Patrick Lee in cycling and Roland Sabido in swimming.
The Filipino wheelchair cagers were also luckless after dropping a heartbreaking 59-61 defeat to the Chinese in the battle for fifth to eighth places. — Joey Villar