SINGAPORE – Swimmer Maurice Sacho Ilustre capped his ASEAN Schools Games in grand fashion by winning his fourth gold medal while the girls’ basketball team showed no mercy over the host country in their gold medal match Wednesday here.
A grade 12 student at the De La Salle-Zobel, Ilustre clocked two minutes and 03.67 seconds to beat out Singaporean Rhys Jun Kai (2:05.58) and Indon Zelmi Aryalingga Azel (2:06.01) for the gold and in the process became the country’s most bemedalled athlete in the annual tournament.
His four-gold out was a fitting follow-up to his smashing 7-gold show in the Palarong Pambansa in San Jose, Antique last May.
“Malaking tulong talaga yung training ko sa US para mag-improve ako,” said Ilustre, who also won the gold in the boys 200m freestyle, boys 100m backstroke and boys 100m butterfly.
The PH belles proved too classy over the Singaporeans, winning the gold medal, 82-32.
Kristine Cayabyab played her best game in the tournament, scoring a team-high 21 points while Kent Jane Pastrana and Jeeul Rhcoel B. Bartolo added13 and 12 points, respectively.
Despite the gold winning efforts of Ilustre and the girls basketball team, Team PH slipped to No. 6 with 13 gold, eight silver, and 21 bronze medals.
Thailand emerged as the new leader with 29 golds, 26 silvers and 32 bronzes followed by Indonesia (25-33-29), host Singapore (24-27-27) and Vietnam (20-21-10).
