Alegarbes collects third swim gold

Rookie Ariel Joseph Alegarbes now has three gold medals to his name. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The prolific Filipino swimmers came through again in the 11th Asean Para Games at Jatadiri Sports Complex in Semarang, Indonesia, delivering the golds on Friday that vaulted the country’s total haul past its gold count from the previous edition.

Rookie Ariel Joseph Alegarbes dominated the men’s 50-meter freestyle S14 race in 25.74 seconds for his third gold in the meet, matching the collection of teammate Angel Otom.

“This is totally unexpected but once again I thank my father Abner for introducing me to swimming so I could overcome my asthma as a young boy,” said Alegarbes, who also won a gold and a silver medal in the Asian Youth Para Games in Manama, Bahrain, last December.

Fellow newcomer Marco Tinamisan tabbed his second straight gold medal while Gary Bejino, after two runner-up finishes in the pool, finally struck gold.

Tinamisan sweetened his stint in the regional meet by topping the men’s 100-m freestyle S3 event in 1:54.15 while Bejino, a Tokyo Paralympian, ruled the men’s 100-m freestyle S6 race in 1:13.80. The swimmers’ gold haul meant that they had claimed half of the 24 golds the Philippines has pocketed so far in the meet.

Those three golds and the sweep of the men’s chess P1 individual and team events Thursday afternoon, meant the country now has surpassed the 20-gold haul from 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Philippines also has 23 silvers and 43 bronzes at press time. Sander Severino bagged four gold medals in chess—the most by any of the 144 Filipino athletes sent to Surakarta.