SEA Games: 4 late victories end PH drought
TREAT Huey and Denise Dy do the fist bump as the Philippines’ mixed doubles tandem finally clinches the gold medal over Thailand, 2-0, at the 28th SEA Games in Singapore. RAFFY LERMA
SINGAPORE—Samuel Morrison and Pauline Lopez delivered two taekwondo golds after netters Treat Huey and Denise Dy and the men’s keelboat team in sailing came through to bring sunshine to the gloomy Philippine campaign here Sunday in the 28th Southeast Asian Games.
Morrison crushed Vietnam’s Phan Trung Duc, 19-12, to capture the gold medal in the men’s 68 kg in taekwondo and Lopez, 19, ruled the women’s 57 kg after outlasting Vietnam’s Phan Thi Thu Hien, 20-12, at Singapore Expo Hall 2.
The 2014 World University Games champion Morrison piled up a big buffer taking the first round, 7-1. He secured the lead with crisp kicks and roundhouses to go up, 16-6.
By the third round, the 24-year-old Filipino was already way ahead in the scoring and coasted to the easy win.
Huey and Dy, the 2011 champions, bundled out Thais Sonchat Ratiwatana and Peangtarn Plipuech, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, before a big gallery of Filipino fans at Court 4 of Kallang Tennis Center that was drenched by rains overnight.
“It was great coming out here to win the gold medal,” said the 29-year-old Huey, the world No. 49 in doubles. “The crowd support carried us.”
In the choppy waters of the National Sailing Center in East Coast Parkway, Ridgely Baladares, Rommel Chavez and Richly Magsanay topped the male match racing keelboat competition to clinch the Philippines’ second gold following the winless spell Saturday.
The Filipino sailors bested Singapore, 1-0, to raise the Philippines’ medal count early in the day to 28 gold, 35 silver and 64 bronze medals, as of 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
The defending champion Sinag Pilipinas men’s basketball team rolled back Thailand, 80-75, later in the night to move within a win of the gold medal.
Dy returned to the court an hour later to pair up with Katharina Lehnert in the women’s doubles final, but the duo dropped a 6-3, 6-4 decision to Thailand’s Noppaw-an Lertcheewakarn and Varatchaya Wongteancha.
The twin golds eased the Philippines’ disappointment after archer Amaya Cojuangco yielded the gold to Malaysia’s Fatin Nurferahah Matt Saleeh in the women’s individual compound final at Kallang Cricket Field, 138-136.
Two-time rowing champion Nestor Cordova also settled for the silver in the men’s 1,000-meter single sculls. He clocked three minutes and 30.47 seconds in Marina Channel, but it wasn’t enough to halt Indonesia veteran Memo Memo, who timed 3:27.25 for the gold.
Archery also produced two bronzes through the men’s team compound and women’s team compound, while rowing got another third-place finish through Edgar Ilas and Benjie Tolentino in the men’s lightweight 1,000m double sculls.
The Huey-Dy pairing finally foiled the powerhouse Thai contingent, which put away six of the seven golds at stake in the sport.
Working behind a crafty serve-and-volleys game, Huey and Dy never allowed Sonchat and Peangtarn to get into their rhythm.
Delegation chief of mission Julian Camacho said the country now stands to match its performance in the Burma (Myanmar) Games two years ago.
“What’s important now is that we are sure of improving on our seventh overall finish the last time out,” said Camacho.
He said the decline in performance wasn’t exclusive to the Philippines but to other countries as well, like Malaysia, the host in 2017.
“Even Malaysia’s sports minister was disappointed,” Camacho said.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., had earlier appealed to the SEA Games Federation to amend its charter and make a separate medal tally for Olympic sports, and another for “indigenous and non-Olympic” sports.
Cojuangco said the move would improve the region’s performance in bigger stages like the Asian Games and the Olympics. It would also balance out the advantage of host nations which dictate the calendar of sports in the Games.
Despite the abundance of road races in the country, Filipino cyclists were shut out in the Games as Ronald Oranza, after a solo breakaway in the final kilometer of the road race, got swallowed by the main pack near the finish line of the slippery 140 km race around Gardens by the Bay.
