NAGOYA-There won’t be a celebration for a medal of any color as the country’s bets at the Kasugai Country Club continued to falter in the penultimate round Friday in the Aichi-Nagoya 30th Asian Games.
Rianne Malixi flashed some semblance of a fight with a two-under 33 on the front nine of the tough par-70 East course but the Duke University standout couldn’t keep up and with a double-bogey on the 18th finished with a one-over 71.
Malixi dropped into a share of sixth place at nine-under 207 alongside Hong Kong’s Wai Chung Ding (70) and defending champion Arphichaya Yubol of Thailand (66).
They trailed third-running Ruoning Yin of China (66-199) by eight heavy strokes with only 18 holes remaining as India’s Sharath Pranavi surged ahead with a 66 to reach 195, taking a three-shot lead over two-time leader Shannon Tan of Singapore, who stumbled to a 71 for a 198 total.
Hong Kong’s Sophie Han (67-204) and Korea’s Yunseo Yang (74-205) occupy fourth and fifth spots, respectively.
There wasn’t any relief, too, in the team classification with Bianca Pagdanganan, whose campaign is supported by ICTSI, struggling to a second 71 to sit tied for 15th at 212, and Pauline del Rosario failing to make the cut, the Philippines assembled a third-round 142.
Their 54-hole total of 418 dropped them to seventh in the nine-team field-seven strokes behind third-place Hong Kong (411) and a distant 13 off leader China (405).
Justin delos Santos posted a 71 in tough scoring conditions, slipping to a tie for 12th in the individual standings at 206 in men’s play.
Delos Santos sits seven shots off joint second-place holders Kasuki Higa of Japan and Wang Wei Hsuan of Chinese Taipei (199), who both stay within striking distance of frontrunner Tom Kim of Korea.
Miguel Tabuena struggled to gain any momentum, turning in a one-over card to share 23rd place at 211. Carl Corpus skied to a 77, tumbling to joint 34th at 218 in the 38-player field.
In the men’s team division, the Philippines slipped to eighth overall after posting a 142 for a 416 total, 14 shots adrift of third place. Chinese Taipei charged into contention with a 133 to tie China (137) at 402, setting up a four-way battle for gold alongside leader Korea (400) and host Japan (401).
The Philippines last won gold in men’s golf behind Ramon Brobio 40 years ago in the Seoul 1986 edition, while the country has yet to come close to duplicating the feat in Jakarta 2018 when Yuka Saso won the individual gold and with Pagdanganan and Lois Go captured the team title.