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By Krista Montealegre, Reporter
Daniel Coakley failed to accomplish the
achievement of his Olympian great grandfather, after missing the 50m
freestyle semifinals and falling short of improving on his personal
best record on Thursday at the Water Cube.
Coakley, great grandson of the late Teofilo
Yldefonso who gave the Philippines two of its seven bronze medals in
the same sport, clocked 22.69 seconds for a sixth-place finish in
the ninth of 13 heats.
The 19-year-old Coakley was .06 second behind
his personal best record, which stands at 22.63 seconds.
His great grandfather, Yldefonso, is the first
Filipino to win an Olympic medal, and the only Filipino to win more
than one. He had a third-place finish in the 1928 Amsterdam Games
and the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics in the 200m breaststroke.
Coakley is the third tanker to exit the swimming
competition after JB Walsh in the men’s 200m butterfly and Miguel
Molina in the men’s 200m breaststroke and in the 200m individual
medley.
With Coakley, Walsh and Molina out of
contention, the country’s last hopes for a medal in swimming fall
on Ryan Arabejo and Christel Simms. They are scheduled to race
today.
Arabejo is to see action in the men’s 1500m
freestyle, while Simms returns to the pool in the women’s 50m
freestyle.
Simms, the lone female Filipino swimmer, failed
to make the cut of the women’s 100m freestyle semifinals on
Wednesday, after a fourth-place finish in the second heat.
Arabejo and Simms will round out the
participation of the five-member Team Philippines in this sport,
which is being dominated by American Michael Phelps, hailed as the
greatest Olympian of all time after securing 11 gold medals.
Earlier, four other Filipino athletes in Eric
Ang (shooting), Hidilyn Diaz (weightlifting), Mark Javier (archery)
and Harry Tañamor (boxing) ended their gold-medal quest in
disappointment with early exits in their respective events.
Including the swimmers, there are eight more
Filipino athletes still in competition.
Today, Sheila Mae Perez is scheduled to compete
in the 3m springboard diving event.
On Saturday Henry Dagmil will compete in the
long jump and so will Marestella Torres on August 19 in the same
event.
On August 20, Tshomlee Go is scheduled to
compete in the -58 kg. tae kwon do event, while female jin
Antoinette Rivero is to begin her -67-kg event on August 22.
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