Philippine athletics team settles for silver and bronze medals

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine athletics team, highly-expected to deliver gold medals, instead settled for second and third place finishes in the 26th SEA Games in Indonesia.

Bagging silver medals were Arniel Ferrera in the hammer throw event and the Philippine team in the 4 x 400m relay while Danilo Fresnido took home the bronze in javelin throw.

Michael Baletin shone as he finished with a silver medal in the 75-kg wrestling.

A slew of bronzes were added to the Philippines’ medal tally as Mark Galeda finished third in the 50.7 km Individual Time Trial and Pauline Lop, a flyweight, fought her way for a podium finish in female taekwondo along with the Philippine swim team, which also brought bronze medals.

Members of the male 4 x 100m freestyle consisting of Paolo Arabejo, Jose Gonzales, Jessie Lacuna and Lee Anderson settled for bronze.

Dorothy Hong clinched third place in the 50m backstroke.

As of this time, the Philippines remained in sixth place with 8 golds, 15 silvers and 22 bronzes behind Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and host Indonesia.