Philippines’ Eumir Felix Marcial celebrates after knocking out Vietnam’s Nguyen Manh Cuong to claim the gold medal during the 30th South East Asian Games 2019 Men’s Middleweight (75 kg). INQUIRER PHOTO/ Sherwin Vardeleon
MANILA, Philippines — Team Philippines sustained its assault on the Southeast Asian Games record books, as seven of its pugs led another searing gold medal onslaught that not only widened the Filipinos’ lead over a badly beaten field in the race for the overall championship but also jacked up the all-time gold record with still two days left in the 30th edition of this region’s Olympics.
After putting 10 fighters in the finals, the Filipinos were unrelenting, with six of the wins coming via unanimous decision and Eumir Marcial knocking the lights out of his Vietnamese foe in the middleweight finals later that more than made up for the exits of the Philippines’ first three fighters — Irish Magno (women’s fly), Marjon Pianar (men’s welter) and women’s lightweight bet Riza Pasuit.
Reigning Aiba world featherweight champ Nesthy Petecio destroyed Myanmar’s Oo Nwe Ni for a 5-0 score, which came minutes before Marcial, an Olympic hopeful like Petecio, applied his handiwork on Nguyen Manh Cuong, whom he stopped after less than a minute into the fight after connecting on the Vietnamese’s body several times.
Boxing golds
Carlo Paalam notched the first boxing gold by ruling the men’s lightflyweight division, before Roger Ladon followed suit with a flyweight win.
Josei Gabuco and James Palicte also hammered 5-0 wins over separate foes in the women’s and men’s lightflyweight classes, respectively.
It was sweet success for the boxers, who couldn’t pull off a repeat of their 2005 feat when they swept all the gold medals the last time the country hosted the Games.
Those seven gold medals made for a huge chunk of the Philippines’ Day 9 harvest of 21 gold medals, jacking up the Filipinos’ overwhelming total to 133 golds, obliterating — with conviction — the old mark they established 14 years ago when they won 113 gold medals.
Together with its 98 silver and 100 bronze medals, Team Philippines has totally made the other countries in the 11-nation conclave eat its dust, with Vietnam having a 77-77-88 count and Thailand, which overtook Indonesia for third spot, having 74-90-99.
While the boxers cornered the lion’s share of the gold medals up for grabs on the final day as expected, a warrior from another contact sport with champion’s pedigree provided the poignant moment Team Philippines needed on another swashbuckling day.
Samboy’s daughter
Jamie Lim, daughter of basketball great Samboy Lim, ruled the -61-kilogram women’s kumite class of karatedo, crying with her mom, the former Darlene Berberabe, as they posed for photos with her first SEA Games gold medal.
Those were tears of joy, for sure, but for those who know what Samboy is going through, they would have cried with them as well.
“The summa (cum laude honor) was for my mom,”Jamie, who earned a degree in mathematics from the University of the Philippines with that honor earlier this year, told reporters. “But the gold medal is for my dad.”
Samboy, a many-time internationalist, two-time SEA Games gold medal winner and all-time great in the PBA, suffered a stroke late in 2014 and has been bedridden since then.
Though he wasn’t there to watch Jaime deal Indonesia’s Ceyco Zefania a 2-1 beating like he was there — and cried — when Jamie accepted her diploma, the way the daughter pulled out the win had Samboy’s resiliency written all over it.
“I told Jamie that ‘daddy is fighting every day to be here to witness this moment,’” Darlene, a philosophy major from UP who was also summa cum laude in 1989, told the Inquirer. “She’s got his discipline. She’s got his focus.”
“I thought after I graduated summa [that] I won’t be able to strike gold — like I’ve ran out of luck for this year,”said Jamie, who returned to training after a long academic break just five months ago. “This took hard work, focus, and discipline, everything that I saw [in] my parents.”
Margarita Ochoa, one of the most celebrated names in the world of jiujitsu, pocketed the 45-kg gold for women, with Carlo Peña and Dean Michael Roxas following suit by ruling the men’s 56-kg and 85-kg classes, in that order.
More gold medals
Windsurfing chipped in with two golds courtesy of Yancy Kaibigan (men’s RX X 9.5m) and Coveta Geylord RS: One men’s).
Melvin Calano threw the javelin to a distance of 72.86 meters for the gold as athletics continued racking up the wins after record-smothering performances by Kristina Knott in the women’s 200-meter dash and EJ Obiena and the charming Natalie Uy in the men’s and women’s pole vault events, respectively.
Clinton Kingsley Bautista clocked 13.97 seconds and won the photo finish over Sofian Rayzan Wan of Malaysia for the 110-m hurdle that upped athletics’ total to nine gold medals, one better than the projection the local federation gave before the start of these Games.
Jerry Olsim bagged the gold medal in the -69-kg kick light event after defeating Thailand’s Srayut Klinming for a 3-0 decision. It was the first gold of the Philippines in the sport.
The pro fighter for Team Lakay drew 22-11, 16-8, and 19-6 scores from the judges.