GUANGZHOU—Engelberto “Biboy” Rivera’s men’s singles gold medal and Frederick Tan’s bronze they won on the third day of Guangzhou 2010 may be the Philippines’ last in bowling in the Asian Games. Rivera, 36, missed a second gold medal after he wound up seventh in the men’s masters on Wednesday with a two-block total of 3546 pin falls, 277 behind gold-medal winner Bok Eum Choi (3823) of Korea. China’s Jianchao Du (3730) bagged the silver and Kuwait’s Mohammed AMA Alrgeebah (3673) clinched the bronze.
Marianne Daisy Posadas (3390) and Liza del Rosario (3267) were seventh and 14th in a field of 16 in the women’s masters dominated by Koreans Sun Ok Hwang (3727) and Jin Choi (3689) and Singapore’s Cherie Tan Shi Hua (3466).
The bowling competitions in Guangzhou 2010 ended on Thursday, perhaps the last day the sport is to be played on the Asian Games calendar.
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has announced its intention to streamline the Asian Games from the current 42 sports in Guangzhou 2010 to no more than 35 sports in Incheon (Korea) in 2014, the Asiad Daily reported.
The OCA would want the 2014 Games to jibe with the 2016 Rio Olympics, where 28 sports are on the program. For Incheon, the OCA would make the 28 Olympic sports as compulsory and only a maximum seven sports that “reflect Asia’s diversity” would be added.
And of those seven, bowling, at the moment, is a candidate.
If bowling would be scrapped in 2014, the Philippines has lost a very potent source of gold medals in the quadrennial games.
Of the 60 gold medals the Philippines has won in the Asiad, bowling with a contribution of six gold medals ranks behind the 14 of basketball, 11 of athletics and 10 of swimming.
Jun LOmibao, Business Mirror
