Mendoza: Haunting Eala defeat and hurting basketball blow

THERE was no tennis gold for Alex Eala in the just-ended Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. A heart-breaker, indeed.

For one, Eala had been loudly touted to win.

For another, the road to victory seemed providentially paved for Eala since her top foes for the gold were all playing in Beijing while the Asiad was on.

Eala had to even skip the China Open, just to be in Japan — under pain of a 10,000-dollar fine on top of losing ranking points from the Women’s Tennis Association.

She had to gamble because a win in the Asiad would have also clinched for Alex an automatic ticket to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

But the gods of the game had other plans.

For sure, there will be other Olympic avenues waiting for Eala. And she will surely bounce back and squeeze herself eventually into the Olympic calendar through qualifying stages. She has two years to do it. Plenty of time.

Aside from the Eala meltdown, there were other painful defeats in Nagoya as close misses for the gold resulted in nine silver medals for the Philippines. But the most telling blow happened in men’s 5x5 basketball.

Not only did Gilas Pilipinas lose its title it had gallantly won in the Hangzhou, China, Asiad in 2023. It placed ninth in Nagoya — the country’s worst men’s cage finish in the quadrennial Games.

Why the national quintet did not have even a single naturalized import (other countries even had four imports) was as mind-boggling as when seeing Shaquille O’Neal forget how to execute a slam dunk.

OK, Justin Brownlee had injury issues but how about Kouame and Boatwright, not to mention the likes of AJ Edu, Dwight Ramos and Quentin Millora-Brown?

Still and all, we heap praise on our Terrific Trio of gymnast Carlos Yulo, pole vaulter EJ Obiena and taekwondo sensation Jeus Gabriel Derick Yape for their four gold medal haul.

Two golds came from Yulo in the floor exercise and vault. Obiena did 5.91 meters to break his Asiad mark of 5.9. And Yape popped out from nowhere to win gold in the pioneering virtual taekwondo event.

Their golden feats anchored a 29-medal harvest (16 bronzes), the biggest for the Philippines in 60 years of Asiad participation.

“This is our best performance in decades,” said Philippine Sports Commission Chair Pato Gregorio, comparing it to the 42 medals we collected in the 1966 Bangkok edition.

A consolation still fully embraced.