Filipinos open drive with four golds in SEA Games

Philippine's Torres Marestella bites her gold medal after winning women's long jump at the 26th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Palembang, South Sumatera, Indonesia, AP Photo, Achmad Ibrahim

PALEMBANG, Indonesia—The taekwondo jins delivered two gold medals and long jumper Marestella Torres added another as women power fueled the Philippine drive Saturday in the 26th Southeast Asian Games.

Torres took a giant leap of 6.71 meters to shatter her meet record for the Filipinos’ first gold at the Jakabaring Sports City here before the comely poomsae trio of Janice Lagman, Rani Ann Ortega and Camille Alarilla retained their women’s title and rookie jin Camille Manalo topped the under-62kg division in Jakarta.

Rene Herrera defended his title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and delivered another gold for the Philippines.

The 30-year-old Torres eclipsed the 6.68m she set in the 2009 Laos Games on her third of six attempts, easily defusing the challenge of Indonesian Maria Londa, who claimed the silver in 6.47m.

Displaying graceful and fluid movements, the 2009 world champions scored an average of 8.26 points to retain their women’s poomsae team title.

The Filipinos scored 8.34 in keumgang and 8.17 in pyongwon to thwart the Vietnamese team of Tuyet Van Chau, Thi Le Kim Nguyen and Thi Thu Ngan Nguyen, the newly crowned world titlists.

Manalo, a 5-foot-7 University of Santo Tomas student, then beat Vietnamese Thanh Thao Nguyen, 7-3, in a lopsided final to push the Filipinos, who also had two silvers and two bronzes, to fifth overall in the medal tally.

As of 6 p.m. here (7 p.m. in Manila), the Indonesians were smothering the opposition with 18 golds, 11 silvers and 2 bronzes. The Singaporeans were a surprise second (4-4-7), with the Vietnamese (3-5-3) and the defending overall champion Thais (3-2-7) right behind. Malaysia also managed to break into the gold tally.

It was a productive day for the jins as Marvin Gabri Vidal and Ched Sia Shaneen combined to snare the silver medal in the poomsae mixed pair with an average of 8.02, trailing the 8.13 of Vietnam’s Dinh Toan Nguyen and Minh Tu Nguyen.

Vidal added a bronze in the poomsae individual with his average of 7.67, way off Dinh’s 8.13 and the winning 8.30 score of Indonesian Danny Haroso Daniel.

Manalo’s victory caused confusion among Filipino sportswriters here as the official website of the SEA Games showed her just taking a bronze medal.

The Philippine Olympic Committee secretariat here, however, was able to get in touch with taekwondo coach Rocky Samson, who confirmed Manalo’s victory.

Over in Bekasi, West Java, Joey Barba narrowly missed the gold in the downhill bike competition when he clocked 2 minutes and 32.44 seconds for the 1.5-km route, checking in behind Indonesian Purnomo (2:31.45).

Though he failed to duplicate his triumph in the 2007 Nakhon Ratchasima edition, the 26-year-old Barba said he was satisfied with the result. He placed sixth in the seeding run Friday.

Earlier, the 21-year-old Manalo drew a bye before nipping Indonesian Vony Dian Perwata, 3-2, in the semifinals.

“I really gave everything I could,” said Manalo, noting that her two head kicks in the finals spelled the difference.

Karateka OJ delos Santos accounted for the country’s third bronze through the men’s individual kata at the Senayan Sports Complex in Jakarta.

The other bronze came from Katherine Santos, who is turning out to be Torres’ heir apparent with her 6.25m effort.

In swimming, Lee Dhill Anderson and Johansen Aguilar gained the finals of the 50m butterfly. Banjo Tierra also qualified for the 200m breastroke finals.

All of them, however, failed to bag a medal.

The Filipino shooters also fired blanks with Julius Valdez and Emerito Concepcion landing 11th and 12th, respectively, in the 10m air rifle competition with scores of 577 and 576.

Multititled Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla also failed to find his range, settling for sixth in the 25-m standard pistol with 556.

The Philippine Blu Boys suffered a 2-4 setback at the hands of the Indonesians, even as the Blu Girls dumped the Thais, 10-1.

NOTES: The grand opening ceremony Friday night lured thousands of spectators, but a heavy downpour later caused a monstrous traffic jam. Those covering the Games, including Filipino journalists holed up at the Main Press Center, which had no restaurants, unable to get taxis. Some Filipino sportswriters arrived at their hotels past midnight, hungry and tired. Apart from the lack of tables and chair, which forced many members of the foreign press to work sitting on the floor, another major problem is the on-and-off Wi-Fi signal… AKTV on IBC 13 sent two camera crews here while another camera crew stayed behind in Jakarta to chronicle the events there, with emphasis on basketball and football. Aside from airing the Games live, AKTV will also give highlights and instant reports, especially golden efforts by Filipino athletes. Also covering the biennial meet are ABS-CBN and Sports Radio… A Malaysian official, Harun bin Oesnan, died from heart attack while registering athletes on their arrival at the airport Wednesday.