PH fencing team with their medals in the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With them are silver medalist for women’s epee individual Hanniel Abella and bronze medalist Harlene Raguin. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
KUALA LUMPUR—It turned out to be a relatively good day for Team Philippines Tuesday.
A couple of gymnasts greased a five-gold haul that hiked the country’s total to eight while the men’s basketball team buried memories of a scary win with a convincing rout in the 29th Southeast Asian Games here.
Also contributing to the gold tally of the Philippines were fencing and wushu as the delegation earned some measure of relief even if it cornered just a fraction of the 45 golds disputed in one of the heaviest days of the tournament.
Eric Cray added another gold later in the evening after ruling the 400-m hurdles, but looked less-than-perfect in the final of the centerpiece century dash where he settled for silver.
Eric Cray of the Philippines competes in the men’s 400-meter hurdles event of the 29th Southeast Asian Games. Cray clocked 50.03 seconds to win the gold medal.
INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
The 28-year-old Cray held off Vietnamese Quach Cong Lich to win by a photo finish in the 400 hurdles.
About an hour later, and with a little less left in the tank, Cray lost his 100-m dash title to Malaysian Khairul Hafiz Jantan.
Gymnast Reyland Capellan highlighted his routine with a lot of high-scoring power jumps, to bag the men’s artistic floor exercise gold medal.
“I did a lot of power tumblings,” said Capellan of his multiple somersaults that thrilled the judges at Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Center Hall 6.
Reyland Capellan wins gold for men’s floor exercises in gymnastics at the 29th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Kuala Lumpur. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
Kaitlin de Guzman, meanwhile, lived up to her lineage when she took the gold in the uneven bars of the women’s competition. De Guzman is the daughter of former Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Cintamoni Dela Cruz-De Guzman.
Agatha Wong added to the haul when she ruled wushu women’s taijiquan at KLCC right under the famous Petronas Twin Towers.
At MITEC in Hall 6, Los Angeles-based Brennan Wayne Louie dispatched teammate Nathaniel Perez in the men’s individual foil for PH fencing’s first gold.
Brennan Wayne Louie reacts after winning the gold medal against teammate Nathaniel Perez at the Men’s Foil Individual Fencing at the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, the Philippines has eight gold medals, 11 silvers and 11 bronzes after Tuesday’s harvest, which also included five silvers and five bronzes.
Boxing, which produced five gold medals two years ago, will have only three chances of winning this time.
Eumir Felix Marcial stopped his Malaysian opponent in middle weight division to lead Mario Fernandez (bantam) and John Nobel Tupas Marvin (light heavy) to the finals.
The Gilas Pilipinas Cadets, meanwhile, thrilled a packed MABA stadium after routing lowly Myanmar, 129-34, to inch closer to the crown.
The win gave the team a reason to breathe easier after a tense 81-74 victory against Thailand to open its defense of the crown.