Anthony Beram of the Philippines won the men’s 200 meter dash in the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday night. He also won the 400m sprint. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
KUALA LUMPUR—A badly-decimated boxing team punched out two gold medals for Team Philippines which also gained a second gold from Filipino-American trackster Trenten Anthony Beram, and two more golds from low-profile lawn bowls and ice hockey Thursday in the 29th Southeast Asian Games here.
Expected to deliver the telling blows for the Philippine campaign, the country saw Filipino-British John Nobel Tupas Marvin and Eumir Felix Marcial complete the mission at MITEC Hall 8.
However, it was way below the five-gold output of the boxers during the previous Games in Singapore and could put the country’s 50-gold objective in serious jeopardy.
As of 9:30 p.m Thursday, the Philippines has collected 15 golds, 17 silvers and 29 bronzes and stayed stuck in sixth place in the 11-nation meet.
Beram, the 200-meter champion, ruled men’s 400m run in 46.39 seconds at Bukit Jalil National Stadium to become the first Filipino double winner.
Marvin shot the lights out of Malaysian Adli Hafidz Mohd Pauzi for the knockout victory in the light heavyweight category.
Marcial bucked a recurring injury to his left hand to destroy Thai Pathomsak Kuttiya via unanimous decision in middleweight.
While no one was looking, the men’s four’s team in lawn bowls sneaked away with a gold medal after besting host Malaysia, 16-14.
Emmanuel Portacio, Curte Robert Guarin, Leoncio Carreon Jr., and Ronald Lising combined forces for the golden performance at National Lawn Bowls Center in Bukit Kiara.
The team was coming off a long layoff, having competed last in the 2007 Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
The women’s team snagged silver via Marisa Baronda, Nancy Toyco, Nenita Tabiano and Sharon Hauters after dropping to Malaysia in the final.
The ice hockey team also beat Thailand for the gold, 5-4.
Mario Fernandez, defending champion in bantamweight, bowed to Chatchai Butdee of Thailand via split decision, to settle for silver.
The country also amassed bronzes medals in women’s golf through Lois Go who carded a 4-under-par 209 in individual stroke play at Mines Resort and Golf Club.
Mervin Guarte also settled for third place in his forte, 1,500-meter run, yielding to Vietnamese and Thai opponents.
Host Malaysia remained on top at 62-45-36, followed by Vietnam’s 32-22-30, Singapore’s 31-29-33, Thailand’s 25-42-45 and Indonesia’s 18-23-39.
Myanmar occupied seventh place with a 5-5-10 tally, Cambodia was at 1-0-6 while yet to win golds were Brunei (0-1-6) and Laos (0-1-6). Timor Leste has not bagged any medal.