MANILA – Gold medal hauls from boxing and weightlifting moved Team Philippines to fifth place in the standings as the 32nd Southeast Asian Games comes to a close today in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Tokyo Olympics silver medalists Carlo Paalam and Nesthy Petecio scored convincing wins, while Paul Bascon pulled off a come-from-behind victory as they delivered a gold medal each in boxing.
Paalam dominated Aldoms Suguro of Indonesia to rule the men’s bantamweight class while Petecio overwhelmed Indonesian Ratna Sari Devi in the women’s featherweight division.
Bascon, on the other hand, bounced back from a first round defeat to score a split decision victory over Rujakran Juntrong of Thailand in their light welterweight finals clash. John Marvin and Norlan Petecio added two boxing silver medals.
Weightlifter Vanessa Sarno retained her gold medal in women’s 71kg category after a 225kg total lift–a new SEA Games record of 105kg in snatch and 120kg in clean and jerk.
Elreen Ando also captured a gold medal in the women’s 59kg class with a total lift of 216kg punctuated by new games records of 118kg in the clean and jerk and 98kg in the snatch.
Charlotte Ann Tolentino and Jedah Mae Soriano, meanwhile, delivered a gold medal each in arnis as they ruled the women’s full contact padded stick finals in the bantamweight and lightweight events, respectively.
Rena Furukawa, for her part, proved too much for Chu Myat Noe Wai of Myanmar in their battle for the under 57-kilogram class and delivered judo’s first gold medal, while Shugen Nakano settled for silver in men’s -66 kg class and Daryl Mercado ended with bronze in men’s -55kg.
Esports delivered its second gold through the Sibol men’s team that swept Malaysia 3-0 in the finale of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang event and wrestler Jason Balabal topped the 82kg class.
Aside from Balabal, Team Philippines captured three silver medals in wrestling courtesy of Jason Baucas (men’s 72kg Greco Roman), Noel Norada (men’s 62kg GR) and Michael Cater (men’s 55kg GR) and a bronze from Chlovelle Adolfo (men’s 67kg GR).
Fencers Andrea Sayson, Nicole Cortey, Queen Dalmacio and Jylyn Nicanor, meanwhile, contributed a silver medal for national team delegation in the women’s saber team event.
Ending with bronze were the tennis tandem of Richard Gonzales and John Russel Misal in men’s doubles, Carl Joshua Tangonan and Charmaine Dolar in aerobics gymnastics mixed pair, Nicole Ann McCann and Veronica Garces in taekwondo kyorugi./PN
