KIRSTIE Elaine Alora displays the Philippine flag after bagging the gold in the +73kg division of women’s taekwondo. RAFFY LERMA
NAYPYITAW—A last-ditch push to avoid a worst finish in the Southeast Asian Games fizzled out for Team Philippines Saturday with only two taekwondo-jins and a muay fighter delivering precious gold medals that failed to lift the country out of the pits here.
Jins Kirstie Elaine Alora and Kristopher Robert Uy and muay fighter Preciosa Ocaya jacked up the country’s tally to 29 gold medals—one short of the target initially set by PH officials in this vast Burmese capital.
With only sepak takraw left in medal contention a day before the closing ceremony, the 29-gold, 33-silver, 37-bronze harvest also fell short of sixth-running Singapore’s 34-29-44 medal haul, relegating the country to its worst placing since joining the Games in 1977.
It was the third worst haul in the history of the Games for the Philippines, which had 20 golds in Brunei in 1999 and 26 in Kuala Lumpur in 1989.
With the Philippine Olympic Committee and Philippine Sports Commission strictly imposing a gold-silver standard, the country fielded one of the smallest delegations here with 208 athletes participating in 167 out of 460 events. They did come away with 99 medals—a solid batting average as far as chef de mission Jeff Tamayo was concerned.
“The athletes made us proud despite the odds they faced here,” said Tamayo.
Needing a gold rush to overtake the Singaporeans at sixth, the Filipinos could only muster three golds thanks to Alora and Uy who prevailed in the women’s over 74 kg and the men’s over 87 kg, respectively, at Wunna Theikdi Stadium, and Ocaya, whose victory inside the muay arena eased the pain of two painful losses by her teammates.
The 25-year-old Ocaya overwhelmed Phithsaya Phoumchanch of Laos to win via decision in the women’s 54 kg title match.
The Nagcarlan, Laguna struck with a flurry late in the third round as she reclaimed the gold she won in 2009 in Laos.
“I was aggressive than her,” said Ocaya. “I want to knock her down but I couldn’t.”
Alora retained her title with a 6-4 win over Cambodia’s Davin Sorn. Uy hammered out a come-from-behind 7-6 win over Vietnam’s Quang Duc Dinh in the men’s +87 kg category for taekwondo’s fourth gold here.
Muay fighters Philip Delarmino and Jonathan Polosan accounted for two of the four silver medals on the penultimate day of action.
The loss that stung the most was Delarmino’s after the Filipino fighter floored his Burmese foe four times only to lose via decision inside the noisy boxing arena.
Polosan lost to Panupong Panjad of Thailand in the men’s 63.5 kg finals.
The Asean rapid chess team of Darwin Laylo, Rogelio Antonio, John Paul Gomez and Eugene Torre also wound up with a silver, after losing the gold to the Thais via a tiebreak. Francis Aaron Agojo came up with another silver in taekwondo’s men’s 54 kg category.
Table tennis bet Richard Gonzales fell in the semifinals and settled for the bronze in the singles event—a finish matched by Mary Anjelay Pelaez and Jane Narra in taekwondo and Angelo Gumila in judo.
MEDAL TALLY G S B Thailand 101 92 79 Burma 78 57 82 Vietnam 72 82 81 Indonesia 64 80 107 Malaysia 41 38 72 Singapore 34 29 44 Philippines 29 33 37 Laos 13 15 46 Cambodia 8 11 26 Timor-Leste 2 3 5 Brunei 1 1 6 As of 9 p.m., Dec. 21