Ocampo shows the warrior in him

KOROR, Palau—The CNMI earned another silver medal yesterday as veteran wrestler Joe Ocampo fought off an injury sustained last week by advancing to the gold medal match in the ongoing 2005 Palau South Pacific Games.

Ocampo arrived last week and bruised his ribs during a practice session, but that didn’t stop the wrestler from making his presence felt as he defeated a wrestler from the Federated States of Micronesia to advance to the medal round.

“I was just trying not to let him attack my ribs so much, but it turned out he was able to get to my ribs and just punished me,” Ocampo said of his match. “[It] took everything I had and took so much out of me. The guy was a lot stronger than I thought but I was able pull it out in the last second with the help of the crowd and the training of [Tetsuji] Kato and all of those guys [at Trenchtech]…that helped me pull it off.”

Filled with much pain, Ocampo finally rested and settled for the silver, giving Marshall Islands’ Waylon Muller the gold via walkover.

“[Medal] doesn’t mean as much as everybody thinks it does because the truth of the fact is that I was able to wrestle with bruised ribs, so I’m kind a glad I was able to get one or two matches in there,” he said. “Before I got hurt, yes, I was probably in one of the better shapes I’ve ever been in years since high school, but it was due to the training and the efficiency of the guys at Trenchtech.”

Ocampo was actually considering not competing, but stressed that all the work, training, and effort put into his preparation pushed him to get on the mat.

He also acknowledged the support from his wife Clarinda Castro and his family, explaining that they were behind him from start to finish.

“She was very encouraging and I don’t think I could’ve done it without her and my whole family,” he said. “They were all behind me on this…a lot of guys wrestling in the gym were pulling for me too.”

Teammate Slade Adelbai also found success in his first match, beating Joejoe Roberts of Palau, but sustained an injury in the medal round and placed a respectable fourth.

Nan Inthraluk and Don Dunlop, meanwhile, scored their second win of the Games, taking a come-from-behind three-setter against Solomon Islands at the Long Islands courts.

After losing the opening set by a nail-biter, 19-21, the CNMI dynamic duo came back in full force and leveled the match by taking the second set, 21-14.

The two then played well in crunch time and scored a 15-11 victory to close their Mini Games campaign on a high note, finishing in fifth place overall and almost making the medal round.

For their part, female players Milli Saiki and Melissa Halaby also got their second win of the Games after the Palau team failed to show for the match.

Team CNMI also bowed out of tennis as the one-two punch of Jeff Race and Tim Quan faltered in the quarterfinals against Samoa’s Juan Langton and Reinsford Penn 2-4 and 0-4 Monday night at the Airai tennis courts. The men’s doubles action was supposed to have featured two CNMI teams, however, Todd Montgomery was not able to make the trip due to personal reasons, leaving Daniel Son without a partner. Son played in the singles, defeating Dion Neth but dropped his next match.

Quan and female sensation Kana Aikawa also had their run stopped in the mixed doubles quarterfinals, losing to Papua New Guinea’s Mark Gibbons and Nicole Angat 2-4 and 3-5.

In men’s softball, the CNMI failed to secure a medal after dropping to the Federated States of Micronesia, 6-4.

The day looked very promising for Team CNMI as they exploded for three runs in the bottom of the first inning to grab the early advantage. Lead-off batter John Reyes and Ben Duenas got things rolling with consecutive singles and Mel Sakisat was hit by a pitch to load the bases for clean up batter Tony Camacho, who came through with a hard hit that enabled Reyes to trot home. Duenas and Sakisat later crossed home plate on defensive miscues by the FSM squad.

CNMI padded its lead in the bottom of the second inning after Paul Camacho connected for a lead off triple and was brought home by another single by Reyes, 4-0.

That would be the last hurrah for the NMI players as FSM came back with a vengeance in the top of the third inning, cutting the deficit in half by breaking through with two runs, 2-4.

FSM then inched closer with another run in the next inning, and finally evened up the score at four runs apiece when Rickson Muday tripled and scored on a miscue in the top of the sixth inning.

FSM finally broke ahead in the top of the seventh inning, kicking things off with a single by Steve Mendiola, who later scored on an error. An RBI by Muday padded the lead, which was not relinquished as the NMI was not able to close in.

Reyes led the CNMI, going 3-for-4 with a run, a double, and an RBI, while Sakisat and Paul Camacho each had a hit and a run.

Mendiola led FSM with two hits, a run, and an RBI.

Meanwhile, the female softballers bowed out of the Games with a 8-12 defeat at the hands of FSM Monday night.

The NMI was first to get on the scoreboard, with Rose Taman nailing a single, stealing second, advancing to third on an error, and trotting home on another error.

FSM knotted the score in the bottom half of the inning, and after CNMI regained advantage, 2-1, on an RBI triple by Taman, the FSM worked up three more runs and led 4-2.

Team CNMI, however, continued to gun away as they pounded away for three runs in the top of the fourth inning, 5-4. The CNMI got their first three batters on base, all of whom scored courtesy of an RBI fielders choice by Merly Actuoka, a sacrifice fly by Thelma Mizer, and a pass ball.

CNMI players scored five more runs in the game, however, they were still outscored by FSM, which had eight runners cross home plate.

Taman went a perfect 3-for-3 with two singles, a triple, and RBI, a base on balls, and two runs to lead CNMI, while Vanessa Mobel had a hit and two RBIs.

Baseball players also had a tough time, losing 3-9 against FSM Monday night and again to New Caledonia yesterday.

CNMI had a 3-0 lead courtesy of hard hit runs batted in by Joey Dela Cruz and J.P. Sablan, and after FSM managed to knot the score at 3-3, Team CNMI was not able to hold their ground and allowed six runs in the top of the seventh inning.

Jerome Delos Santos almost went yard and finished with two hits in three at bats and scored a run to lead CNMI, while Dela Cruz had a long shot as well and scored a run to go a long with his RBI. Jester Garcia also scored for CNMI.

In other news, triathletes Ketson “Jack” Kabiriel, Stephan Samoyloff, Dirk Sharer, Anneka Sakovich, Natasha Good, and Melissa Coleman received news of a change to their event yesterday, with officials deleting the bike portion of the race.

This according to Samoyloff, who said that organizers called off the bike portion for safety reasons, citing that an athlete from New Caledonia got injured while biking the course, which many say is dangerous due to potholes and road conditions.

Instead of swimming, biking, then running, the fabulous six will run a distance of 5k, swim for 2k, and close out their charge with another 5k run.

The event is scheduled to unfold at 6:30am this morning at the Palau-Japan Friendship Bridge—former KB Bridge.

“It’s very unfortunate, but it was the right call,” Samoyloff said. “It kinda suits our strength.”

Table tennis players were also battling in the singles competition yesterday. Details were not available as of press time.