Filipinos bag three more golds, lay 6th in SEA Games
PALEMBANG, Indonesia—Cue master Dennis Orcollo lived up to his lofty billing while wrestler Margarito Angana and the debuting men’s bridge team pulled off suprise victories that injected life to the Philippine campaign in the 26th Southeast Asian Games here.
Orcollo, rated No. 1 in the world, outclassed Indonesian star Ricky Yang, 7-4, to retain his 8-ball title at the Jakabaring billiard arena.
Matching Orcollo’s golden effort were Angana, who beat his rivals from Myanmar, Indonesia and Vietnam by superiority in succession to defend his title in the 55-kilogram Greco-Roman category, and the butler pair of Gerry Alquiros and Dr. George Soo who garnered the highest percentage score in bridge against 17 other players at the Jayakarta Hotel.
“My hard work and sacrifices paid off,” said the 28-year-old Zamboanga-born Angana, who honed his skills with training stints in Bulgaria last year and in South Korea last month.
Another wrestler, Michael Baletin, clinched the silver in the 74-kg Greco-Roman.
The 32-year-old Orcollo, the reigning World 8-Ball champion, allowed Yang to close in at 2-1 before sealing the gold by sweeping the next four racks to reach the hill.
The women’s bridge team of Gemma Tan, Viksi Egan, Anne de Guzman, Rose Unson, Mylene Encontro and Sylvia Alejandro settled for the bronze after yielding to Thailand by a mere point in their tussle for the right to enter the final round.
The Indonesians continued to pull away with a gold-silver-bronze medal harvest of 53-42-34, followed by defending champion Thailand (31-24-29), Vietnam (22-24-29), Singapore (17-15-27) and Malaysia (11-14-21).
As of 8 p.m. (9 p.m. in Manila), the Filipinos’ triumph in bridge had yet to be reflected in the official medal tally which should give them eight golds, 13 silvers and 19 bronzes—good for sixth place in the 11 nation field.
In late-night action, Arniel Ferrera lost his hammer throw title with a heave of 60.19 meters.
Thai Tantipong Phetchai won the gold with a throw of 61.46.
Mark Guevarra Galedo added a bronze for the Filipino cyclists, clocking 1:53:33.33 in the 50.7 km time trial ruled by Indonesian Tonton Susanto in 1:49:19.60.
Dorothy Grace Hong again saved the swimmers from going medal-less by copping her second bronze in the women’s 50m backstroke. Hong clocked 29.96 seconds while victorious Singaporean Shana Lim Jia Yi tmed 29.37.
A limited field and the luck of the draw assured bantamweight Nesthy Petecio of at least a silver medal even before the start of boxing competitions on Tuesday.
Another bronze came from the karatekas through the women’s team kumite of Erica Samonte, Mae Soriano and Racquel Luzarez.
The sport also added one silver in the men’s team kumite and bronzes from Soriano (kumite 55 kg-below), Jayson Ramil Macaa-lay (kumite 60 kg-below) and Ronnel Balingit (kumite 84-kg below).
OJ delos Santos and Samonte also contributed bronzes in the kata and kumite 50 kg and below.
