Filipinos snare nine golds, but stay in 6th spot

PALEMBANG, Indonesia—Team Philippines came up with its most productive harvest of nine golds from various fronts Monday but failed to lift the country out of the doldrums in the 26th Southeast Asian Games here.

Boxing and wushu accounted for two golds each after a victory in fin swimming capped a last-ditch drive that saw the Filipinos pull off six victories earlier in the day in different venues.

Lightweight Charly Suarez and light welterweight Dennis Galvan outpointed their respective Indonesian rivals to give boxing four golds overall while Danielle Faith Torres prevailed in the 50-meter surface event and ended the country’s victory drought in aquatics.

Eduard Folayang knocked out his Laotian foe to emerge 70 kg champion in wushu’s sansou while Mark Eddiva followed suit in the 65 kg class held in Jakarta.

Diego Lorenzo topped the individual showjumping category of equestrian over teammate Toni Leviste (see story on the right), the mixed doubles team of Denise Dy and Treat Huey gave tennis its first victory, Grandmaster Wesley So finally struck in chess and 19-year-old John Rene Mier booked the country’s second cycling gold.

Foiled in the first set, 4-6, Huey and Dy regrouped to snatch the second set and forge the superbreak, which they took, 10-6, in the rain-drenched hardcourt surface of Jakabaring Sport City.

Atoning for his loss to Susanto Megaranto in men’s standard play, So routed the opposition in blitz play to give chess a gold at the Swama Dwipa Hotel here.

The 18-year-old So swept his nine games for a perfect 9.0 points even as GM Mark Paragua bagged the bronze with 6.0 points.

Over in West Java, Mier ruled the 30 km points race, duplicating Alfie Catalan’s win in the 4,000m individual pursuit Sunday.

Suarez pummeled Mathius Mandiangan, 26-7, while Galvan outpunched Afdan Bachtila for three full rounds but was rewarded with a slim 14-12 win for a back-to-back PH gold in boxing.

Suarez, the 23-year-old fighter from Panabo, Davao del Norte, scored a standing eight-count knockdown in the second and third rounds in a devastating display of power and sharpness.

Galvan, the 19-year-old native of Bago City, led 10-6 in the second round but was surprisingly outpointed in the final round despite his dominant sharpness.

There was an avalanche of silvers but the Filipinos stayed in sixth place in the medal tally.

The Filipinos have amassed 36 golds, 55 silvers and 76 bronzes and already resigned to ending up with their worst performance in the biennial meet.

The Indonesians are assured of their 10th general championship with a runaway gold-silver-bronze medal hoard of 166-145-132 (See medal tally).

Rulp Ylem Jose earlier bowed to Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Mai Hung in their playoff for the women’s standard title in chess and Fil-Americans Cecil Mamiit and Huey yielded the men’s doubles crown to their Indonesian rivals.

Wushu artist Marianne Mariano lost to Thi Ly Tan of Vietnam in the 56 kg final of women sanda while Fil-Aussie Apryl Eppinger nailed her third silver in the sprint race. Eppinger added a bronze in the 5 km scratch race.

The traditional boat racing team also captured a silver in the 2,000m, 22-man crew race.
The dulian team of John Keithley Chan, Eleazar Jacob and Engelbert Addogan took their fight routine to a silver while their female counterparts—Karissa Chan, KC Sacalburo and Natasha Lacsamana settled for the bronze.

In sepak takraw, Jason Huerte and Junmar Aleta salvaged a bronze in the men’s doubles. With a report from Recah Trinidad