PH tankers seal best finish with girls’ relay gold

Mishka Sy, Samantha Banos, Desirae Mangaoang and Mia Tandingan for the girls’ 4×100 medley relay. Photo by Celest Flores-Colina

PHNOM PENH—The Philippines doubled its gold medal output from last year after a strong finish in the 43rd Southeast Asia Age Group Swim Championships Sunday at Morodok Techo National Sports Complex here.

Highlighted by the golden effort of the quartet of Mishka Sy, Desirae Mangaoang, Samantha Banos and Mia Tandingan in the girls’ 4×100-meter medley relay in Day 3, the Philippines concluded the tournament with eight gold, 13 silver and nine bronze medals, good for fifth place and the country’s best finish this decade.

This is the Filipinos’ worthiest performance in the 10-country swim meet since their 13-10-12 medal haul in the 2010 edition held in Laguna. They wound up with a 4-10-16 tally last year.

The host Vietnamese bamboozled the opposition with a whopping three-day total of 43 gold, 41 silver and 25 bronze medals for the overall championship.

Sy, Mangaoang, Banos and Tandingan were ahead from start to finish and wrapped up the gold in 4:19.25 for the Philippines’ first relay gold in the tournament’s history.

Mangaoang, the Fil-American who is representing the country for the first time, came out as the Philippines’ most bemedaled bet after also nabbing the gold—her third—in the 200m breast in 2:34.38. She took home a silver in the 100m breast on Saturday.

Swimming in his last age group meet, 18-year-old Jerard Jacinto also made it a golden double after ruling the boys’ 16-18 50m backstroke event in 26.40.

Jacinto, who swims for De La Salle-Zobel, though, rued the missed opportunity to beat the meet record in the 100m back.

“It’s a bit of mixed emotions. I’m happy and kind of sad because I was really aiming for the meet record, especially in the 100m back, and my personal best is already that, but I had a lot of errors,” said Jacinto. “But I’m still so thankful that I won the gold.”

Ivo Enot, who on Saturday broke an 18 year old national record in the boys’ 13-and-under 200m back, plucked a silver in the 50m back with a clocking of 29.86.

Liaa Amoguis also got a second silver medal after tapping the wall at 2:29.81 in the girls’ 13-U 200m fly.

Tandingan earlier swam to another bronze medal with a time of 58.90 in girls’ 14-15 100m free while Banos, who has won two silver medals earlier in the week, added a bronze to her collection after clocking 2:20.15 in the 200m fly.