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Javier in crucial tiff vs. Taiwanese |
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Written by Staff
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 13:43 |
 BEIJING—After two nights of good sleep, several hours of practice at the Olympic Green Archery Field and a good dose of Diatabs, Mark Javier is ready to pit skills with the world’s best archers in the 29th Olympic Games here today.
Javier, a lanky, 5’11” native of Dumaguete City, will face Taipei’s Kuo Cheng Wei at 3:30 p.m. in one of the 32 head-to-head matches, where the victors advance to the Round of 16.
Then, anything can happen if he lands in the Final 8.
But the quarterfinals is farthest from the mind of Javier right now as his sights are trained on one single person—Kuo, who led his team to the gold medal in last year’s World Cup in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
“He’s good, alam ko ’yun. But I know I can give him a very good fight. Sana suwertehin tayo,” said Javier, who used to be hooked with air gun shooting, his father’s love, before the lure of archery forced him to give up his air guns for a bow and several arrows.
Javier was slowed down in the rankings round last Saturday by diarrhea, which bothered him until Monday, forcing him to limit his practice session by a day. On Tuesday, he was given a clean bill of health by Team Philippines doctor, Alejandro Pineda, who gave him loperamide and antibiotics.
“Malaki ang pag-asa nating manalo. Breaks na lang ito, determinado si Mark,” said Javier’s coach, archery great Jennifer Chan, who is not putting any pressure on her ward.
“Basta i-enjoy lang niya ’yung gagawin niya. Mahirap kasi ’pag pumasok sa ulo niya ang pressure,” added Chan during a break at a training session yesterday afternoon at the same venue.
Using a 44-pound bow, Javier finished 36th in the rankings with 654, a new Philippine record. He owned the previous record of 643 which he set in Antalya, Turkey, last May. Kuo, also tall at 5’9” but heavy at 203 pounds, finished at 29th place with 659.
Mexico’s Juan Rene Serrano made 679 and is the favorite in the event, although he, like the rest, would have to contend with world’s no. 1 Im Dong-hyun of Korea, who ranked eighth with 670 points. The Korean takes on Qatar’s Salem Ali (57th, 627).
A little later in the day, boxer Harry Tañamor trades punches with Ghana’s Manyo Plange in the penultimate match of a heavy 13-game sked.
Tañamor, who weighed 400 grams over the limit, is doing fine, according to his Cuban coach Enrique Tissert.
“Sinabi niyang huwag akong matakot at bahagyang overweight si Harry. He told me he has prepared the boy very well,” said boxing president Manny Lopez, referring to Tissert, the Cuban coach hired early this year to handle the training of the country’s only representative in boxing.
A veteran of the 2004 Athens Games, the 29-year-old Tañamor did light workout with the mitts for timing and coordination and simulating time of competition for body rhythm and adjustments, under coaches Tissert and Pat Gaspi.
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