KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Here comes the brigade and the much-needed push.
Olympian Elreen Ando, Carlo Paalam and Nesthy Petecio produced big wins Sunday and set off an avalanche of 9 gold medals as Team Philippines regained 5th place going into the final stretch of the 32nd Southeast Asian Games here.
Ando, a Tokyo Olympian weightlifter who opted to go down to 59kg from 64kg erased three Games records en route to winning the gold that saw he hoist a 216kg total – 98 kilos in snatch and 118 in clean & jerk.
Her performance eclipsed all the three old marks of Vietnam’s Hoang Thi Duyen in snatch (96), clean & jerk (115) and total (210).
“I want to dedicate this gold medal to my father. I finally made his dream come true,” said the 24-year-old Ando, whose father passed away last year.
It was a dramatic battle at first between Ando and Hoang in snatch, with the Vietnamese bet starting her lift at 93 kilos, only to fail. She successfully lifted on second attempt but failed on her third at 97 kilos.
Ando, for her part, registered a new SEAG mark in snatch with 98 kilos on her third attempt to take the lead going to the clean & jerk.
Hoang appeared to have no gas left in the tank in the clean & jerk, managing only 112 to finish with 205 for bronze.
Then it was Ando’s turn, where she needed only to lift 118 kilos on her first attempt to capture the gold medal.
Thailand’s Suratwadee Yodsarn finished silver with 206.
At the Chroy Changvar Convention Center, Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Paalam lived up to his billing by outgunning his Indonesian rival Aldoms Suguro to capture the men’s 54kg gold in boxing while Petecio, also a silver medalist in the Tokyo Games, crushed Indon foe Ratna Sari Devi via unanimous decision to claim the women’s -57kg.
Other athletes who contributed to the day’s gold rush were boxer Paul Julyfer Bascon, who prevailed via split decision over Thailand’s Rujakran Juntrong in the men’s 60kg crown, Fil-Japanese judoka Rena Furukawa, who retained her women’s -57kg title after outpointing Myanmar’s Chu Nat Noe Wai, and the esports team of Marco Requitiano, Michael Sayson, Angelo Arcangel, David Canon, Noewee Macasa and Rowgien Unigo, who won the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Mobile) Men’s event.
Charllote Tolentino (women’s full contact padded stick-bantamweight) and Jedah Mae Soriano (women’s full-contact padded stick-lightweight) also chipped in gold medals for Team PH after ruling their arnis events.
Later in the night, wrestler Jason reigned in men’s82kg Greco Roman to cap the country’s most productive day that proved enough to overtake tiny Singapore.
With the gold rush, Team PH hiked its medal tally to 43 gold, 65 silver and 77 bronze medals as of 5:30 p.m. whole Singapore has 42- gold, 35 silver and 51 medals.
Vietnam remains atop the leaderboard with 96 golds, 79 silvers and 92 bronzes, followed by Thailand with 81-60-82, Cambodia with 61-54-92 and Indonesia with 60-55-76.
Earlier, 15-year-old Rosalinda Faustino claimed the silver medal in the women’s 55kg that Hidilyn Diaz once reigned by lifting 184 kilos.
She finished only two kilos lighter than gold medalist Juliana Klarisa of Indonesia, who posted 186 kilos.
Faustino, a native of Zamboanga city, trailed third in snatch with 80 kilos before registering 104 kilos in clean & jerk on her second attempt.
She tried to lift 107 kilos for the gold medal but failed.
“I was nervous because I haven’t lifted 107 before, but I’m still glad that I got the silver medal,” said Faustino.
At the Chroy Changvar Convention Center, former arnis player Noelito Garcia Jr. grabbed the silver medal in the men’s epee individual
Meanwhile, Charmaine Dolar and Carl Joshua Tangonan secured the bronze medal in the mixed pair at the end of the aerobic gymnastics competition at the same venue.
Dolar and Tangonan scored 18.2670 to finish behind Vietnam’s Hoang Phong Le and Ngyo Thuy Vi Tran (19.2330) and Cambodia’s Has Sokhor and Mos Sreypov (18.7170), who clinched gold and silver medals, respectively.
It was the second bronze medal for the PH aerobic gymnastics team as well as for Dolar, who also won bronze in the women’s individual Saturday, May 13.
Overall, the national gymnastics team collected four gold, two silver and two bronze medals – a respectable feat since organizers put a limit on participation in events.
All those four golds came from the artistic gymnastics crew led by Carlos Yulo with two, and John Ivan Cruz and Juancho Miguel Besana with one each.
At the Morodok Techo National Stadium, Gilas Women fended off a hard-fighting Thailand, 82-70, to stay in the hunt for the silver medal in 5-on-5 basketball.
Afril Bernardino finished with 18 points while Khate Castillo added 11 points for the Filipina dribblers, who leaned on a late fourth-quarter surge to shake off the Thais and catch Malaysia at second spot with identical 4-1 records.
Interestingly, Gilas Women’s next match will be against Malaysia on Monday, May 15 where the winner will bag the silver medal after Indonesia officially clinched the gold with an 86-39 victory over Singapore to complete a sweep of the tournament earlier in the day.
