Finally, a gold!

After 12 long days, the Philippines finally assured itself a breakthrough win in the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

Just barely a month after unheralded Filipino Ronnie Alcano softly, but swiftly broke his way en route to a World Pool Championship crown, the Philippines has again imposed its will over the pool table. This time, the country swept its way past the opposition in the 9-ball singles competition of the Asian Games (Day 12), as Jeff de Luna and Antonio Gabica scored convincing wins in their semifinal matches to set up an All-Filipino final.

The twin victories ended the country's "long" drought in the current edition of Asiad. Before the breakthrough triumphs, the Philippines has won only three silvers and six bronzes, good for only a 26th spot in the medal standings, and a lowly 6th among its Southeast Asian (SEA) neighbors -- Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The country topped last year's SEA Games in Manila.

De Luna upset highly-rated Taiwanese Ching Sung Yang, 11-7, while Gabica crushed South Korean Jeoung Young Hwa, 11-5. With the latest success, the country is expected to climb to at least the 21st spot in the standings, but will still lag behind its five SEA rivals.

The Pinoy cue artists' success highlighted a whopping day for the Filipinos eager to prove that last year's SEAG domination was no fluke.

In boxing, one of a few sports where the country is pinning its hopes, two Pinoy pugs, flyweight Violito Payla and bantamweight Joan Tipon have advanced to the gold medal round in contrasting fashions.

Payla, regarded as the current tournament's best pound-for-pound boxer by one of the ring commentators, made short work of Chinese Yang Bo via a RSC-O (referee stopped contest-outscored) in the third round after hiking his lead to 20 points, 40-20.

Tipon, on the other hand, had to go through the proverbial eye of the needle in scathing past defending champion and 2004 Olympics silver medallist Thai Worapoj Petchkoom, winning on a countback, after finishing the four-round tussle tied at 13.
The bout, easily considered one of the best in this year's Asiad, saw both pugilists fighting a highly-tactical, but very entertaining clash. In the end, Tipon proved to be the better boxer for the night.

Payla and Tipon will have to hurdle Thai Somjit Jongjohor and Korean Han Soon Chul, respectively, to add up to the golden harvest of the country.

Elsewhere, the tennis duo of Eric Taino and Cecil Mamiit reached the doubles' medal round after outlasting their Uzbek rival, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6. They will next face the multi-titled Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes.