Phl hauls 4 golds
Philippine team’s campaign in the 2017 Southeast Asian Games kicked into high gear yesterday after claiming four of their seven gold medals in Malaysia.
As of press time,Philippines is at sixth place with seven gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals. Host Malaysia is way on top of the medal standing with its 32 gold, 23 silver and 15 bronze medals.
Pinoy gymnasts in Reyland Capellan and Kaitlin De Guzman delivered two gold medals for the national team.
Capellan ruled the Artistic Floor event. Hours later, Kaitlin De Guzman finished on top of the uneven bars in artistic gymnastics. The 17-year-old De Guzman registered 12.875 points as she ends the country’s 20-year old gold-medal drought in women’s artistic gymnastics.
Agatha Chrystenzen Wong, for her part, bagged the country's sixth gold medal after topping the women's Taijiquan (Wushu) with 9.66 points.
Brunei's Basma Lachkar (9.54) and Singapore' Ho Lin Ying (9.44) completed the top three.
In fencing, Brennan Louie beat fellow Filipino Nathaniel Perez in the final match of the men's foil event in the biennial sports meet.
Cebuana marathoner Mary Joy Tabal gave the country its first gold medal last Saturday, while triathletes Nikko Huelgas and Kim Mangrobang dominated their respective divisions last Monday at the Water Sports Complex in Putrajaya.
In boxing, three Pinoy pugs made it to their respective gold medal rounds. They are middleweight Eumir Felix Marcial who won via referee stoppage against Indran Rama Krishnan of Malaysia, bantamweight Mario Fernandez who outpointed Nat Siek Nin of Cambodia and light heavyweight John Marvin who demolished Thai Anavat Thomgkrathok.
Ian Clark Bautista and Charly Suarez were unlucky as they bowed out. Bautista faltered against Tanes Ogjunta of Thailand, while Suarez lost to Wuttichai Masuk.
Meanwhile, Dennis Orcollo and Warren Kiamco assured themselves of at least a bronze as they stamped their class on their Malaysian rivals in a nine-ball doubles quarterfinals face-off at the KLCC Hall 4.Legendary Filipino pool player Efren “Bata” Reyes, however, still just couldn’t make a breakthrough in English Billiards, dropping out of contention right after their first match in the doubles event.