Paralympic vets go for gold in ASEAN meet

The country’s only Paralympic medalists Adeline Dumapong of powerlifting and Josephine Medina of table tennis are going all out for gold at the 10th ASEAN Para Games featuring 518 events in 16 sports at the New Clark City, Subic and Manila on Jan. 18-25 with both polio-stricken veterans tipped to wipe out the opposition.

Dumapong, 45, has so far collected seven golds and one silver in eight ASEAN Para Games since powerlifting was introduced in 2005. She’s excited to dominate the +86 kilogram category where the gold has been hers in seven of the last eight meets. Dumapong’s silver came in 2014.

“I’m competing with a new coach Antonio Taguibao,” she said. “We’re just about to start training with him and we met as a team with the new coaching staff only last Wednesday.” Dumapong is in the record books as the first Philippine athlete to land a podium finish at the Paralympics, claiming the bronze under coach Honeyboy Fajota in Sydney in 2000. Her dream is to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics so her daughter Alyssa Mae, a Grade 12 student at Nazareth School, can watch her perform. If she makes it, Tokyo will be her sixth and last Paralympic stop.

Dumapong was three years old when she was afflicted with polio and lost her mobility from the waist down. At six, she was brought by her parents to Bahay Mapagmahal, a housing project for youth with disabilities, and enrolled at the School for Crippled Children at the Philippine Orthopaedic Center in Quezon City. Dumapong used crutches and bilateral braces up to 16 when she became exclusively wheelchair-bound. At the Orthopaedic Center, she was encouraged by Belgian missionary Sr. Ross Catry to do music and sports. After high school, Dumapong earned a degree in Secretarial Administration at St. Paul’s College, Quezon City, and in 1997, joined her first powerlifting competition.

Like Dumapong, the coming ASEAN Para Games will be the ninth for Medina who bagged a bronze at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. So far, she has brought in 16 gold, nine silver and five bronze medals in eight ASEAN Para Games since 2003. Medina, 49, took the gold in table tennis singles in the last three ASEAN Para Games.

“I’m very thankful to PSC for allowing my request na mabalik ang coach ko noong 2014, si Michel Dalumpines,” said Medina. “I train in Marikina. At the moment, we are not yet informed as to which events we’ll compete in. Hopefully, I’ll do singles again. In 2017, I played in singles class 6-8 and team class 9-10.” She won the singles class 9 gold medal in 2014.

Medina was eight years old when she went down with polio, leaving her left leg with no feeling and even her left arm was affected. She never tried crutches or braces and just walked through the numbness. An Industrial and Organizational Psychology graduate from Polytechnic University, Medina finished fourth in table tennis singles at the 2012 London Paralympics and vowed to win a medal four years later. She made good on her promise in Rio in 2016, bringing home the bronze after beating Germany’s Julaine Wolf in three straight sets. Medina is hoping to qualify for the Tokyo Paralympics, like Dumapong, but her focus right now is to lead the charge in table tennis at the coming ASEAN Para Games.