PH ranks 5th among SEA nations

RIO DE JANEIRO—Three days before the Rio Olympics draws to a close, the Philippines ranked fifth in the medal tally of the exclusive club of countries that also compete in the Southeast Asian Games.

With a lone silver courtesy of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz in the 53-kilogram class, the country lagged behind Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, in that order.

Incidentally, Diaz’s silver ended the Philippines’ 20-year dry spell in the Olympics.

During that same period, though, athletes from Thailand with six gold, five silver and eight bronze medals; Indonesia (5-7-15), Vietnam (0-2-0), Singapore (0-1-2) and Malaysia (0-2-1) made off with a combined 11-17-26 tally, according to data in The Olympic Record.

Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, and Timor Leste have all failed to win a single medal here in the face of the tough opposition.

The regional tally serves as a rough approximation of each country’s readiness to vie for the overall title in the next SEA Games, scheduled next year in Malaysia.

It is also food for thought for Filipino sports officials as they attempt to thwart the country’s alarming decline in the regional Games, which the country will host next in 2019.

Striking hard in the lighter classes of weightlifting, and to a lesser extent in taekwondo, regional powerhouse Thailand paced the 11-country group with two gold, two silver and two bronze medals.

Thai lifters won the gold and silver in the women’s 58-kilogram class and another gold in the women’s 48 kg. They also claimed a bronze in the men’s 56 kg. Taekwondo-jins accounted for the Thais’ second silver and second bronze in the men’s -58 kg and women’s -49 kg, respectively.

The Indonesians lay second with a 1-2-0 tally following their victory in badminton’s mixed doubles and runner-up windups in the women’s 48 kg and men’s 62 kg in weightlifting. Vietnam nailed its gold in the 10-meter air pistol and the silver in the men’s 50m pistol.

The Rio Olympics’ most impressive triumph by a Southeast Asian, however, belonged to Singapore (1-0-0), whose Joseph Schooling upset American superstar Michael Phelps to claim the men’s 100m butterfly gold—the island-state’s first ever.

The mint is Singapore’s only medal so far, but it was worthier than those of fifth-placed Malaysia (0-2-1), which picked up silvers in badminton’s mixed doubles and diving’s women’s synchronized 10m platform event and a bronze in the men’s keirin of cycling.

“The country’s athletes need to shape up some more if we intend to improve on our seventh-place overall finish in Malaysia,” Olympic chief of mission Joey Romasanta told the Inquirer. “We have exactly a year to do that.”