NAYPYITAW—Powered by the all-teen female golf team and a pair of track and field rookies, Team Philippines mounted a desperate assault from the bottom half of the overall race by nailing six gold medals on Wednesday in its most productive day at the 27th Southeast Asian Games here.
Princess Superal stood at the forefront of a double-gold romp in women’s golf at Royal Myanmar Golf Course even as Jesson Cid broke the national record in topping the decathlon and Christopher Ulboc ended the reign of compatriot Rene Herrera as men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase king to give their sport five victories overall.
The men’s poomsae trio of Dustin and Raphael Mella and Marvin Gabriel triumphed to kick off taekwondo’s campaign and billiards finally delivered through Dennis Orcollo, who downed Carlo Biado, 9-7, in an all-Filipino final in men’s 10-ball.
The victories brought the country’s haul to 20 golds— five off the lowered target of PH officials here—on top of 25 silver and 28 bronze medals to close in on sixth spot occupied by Singapore (23-21-31) with four days left in the Games.
As of 7 p.m. (Philippine time), Thailand remained on top with a 71-66-62 harvest, followed by Vietnam (54-52-60) and host Burma (53-44-49).
The Philippines also bagged three silvers—two in taekwondo through Gabriel, who wound up second in individual poomsae, and Stephen Morrison in the under-74 kg division—and another in judo, where Nancy Quillotes-Lucero lost in the under-45 kg final to a Burmese foe.
Superal coasted to a six-shot victory in women’s individual play after matching par 72 in the final round for a 210 total while spearheading the women’s team also made up of Mia Legaspi and Katrina Briones to the gold.
The lady parbusters ran away with the crown by 11 strokes after pooling 428 at the water-laden layout.
“The diminutive 16 year old from Dasmariñas, Cavite, also took the silver behind Legaspi in the Asian Youth Games early this year.
Over at Wunna Theikdi track, Ulboc, a Far Eastern U standout, ruled the steeplechase in nine minutes and 1.59 seconds. The silver went to Vietnam’s Tien San Pham (9:02.50) followed by Thailand’s Patikarn Pechsricha (9:04.04).
Visibly bothered by a calf injury, Herrera was denied a sixth straight SEA Games gold medal after finishing fourth with a 9:09.24 clocking.
The 22-year-old Cid, a SEA Games newcomer like Ulboc, nailed the fifth PH gold in athletics after amassing 7,038 points in the men’s decathlon.
Also from FEU, Cid broke the record of 6,963 points of Fidel Gallenero, the country’s last decathlon titlist in 2001.
“We have to give it to the athletes; this is already beyond our expectations,” said athletics team manager Philip Ella Juico, the former Philippine Sports Commission chair.
After earlier victories of Henry Dagmil (long jump), Archen Bagsit (400m) and Eric Shauwn Cray (400m hurdles), the track bets are looking for more golds in the men’s 110 hurdles through Cray and the 400m relay squad led by Bagsit.
The men’s poomsae team tallied 7,920 points to best Indonesia (7520) and Thailand (7550).
The haul by the men’s poomsae team eased the pain of the women’s squad’s bronze-medal finish. Janice Lagman and Rani Ortega, who, along with Camille Alarilla, won two straight gold medals in 2009 and 2011, managed just a bronze this time together with Rinna Babanto.
Unable to follow up his swashbuckling victory over Malaysia in the semifinals, Morrison narrowly lost to a Thai, 7-8, in the gold medal match—the same fate suffered by Lucero against a Burmese foe in the under-45 kg division of judo.
The two other bronze medals came courtesy of Jessica Barnard (3000m), and the men’s cycling road racing team of Junrey Navarra, Boots Ryan Cayubit, Mark Galedo and Rustom Lim.
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