Swimmer Isleta snags gold in SEA Games
Filipina Chloe Isleta ended Philippines’ close to three decades of thirst of Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medal as she ruled the women’s 200m backstroke event at the My Dinh Water Sports Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Isleta reigned supreme in her event on late Monday after clinching a time of two minutes and 18.60 seconds to beat Indonesia’s Nurul Fajar Fitriyati and Thailand’s Mia Millar, who settled for silver and bronze, respectively.
This is the first time a Filipino female brought home a SEA Games title since Akiko Thompson ruled the very same event in the 1993 Singapore Games, along with the 100-meter event of the same stroke.
Filipino gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo, meanwhile, wrapped up his campaign with two more golds in horizontal bars and vault and a silver medal in the parallel bars.
Overall, the Tokyo Olympics campaigner ended up with five golds, three of which came from individual all-around, still rings and floor exercise, and two silver medals, including the team event.
Filipina-American Aleah Finnegan Cruz, meanwhile, ended her stint with a silver medal in the balance beam to cap off her national team debut with two golds and two silvers.
Dancers Sean Aranar and Ana Nualla, meanwhile, captured two gold medals in the dancesport event when they ruled the single dance standard tango and dancesport standard - all five dances events.
Bowler Merwin Tan, meanwhile, rolled a sixbagger in the sixth and last frame to erase a 52-pin deficit to rule the men’s singles event, ending the country’s 11-year SEA Games bowling gold medal dry spell.
Clinton Kingsley Bautista also captured a gold medal in athletics in the 100 meter hurdles, while Jocel Lyn Ninobla captured a taekwondo gold in the women’s individual recognized poomsae./