50 feats of gold

Team Phl takes on region’s best, brightest in quest of 50 golds as 29th SEA Games unwraps

MANILA, Philippines - KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Marathon bet Mary Joy Tabal opens Team Philippines’ bid for the gold in the marathon early today, which the contingent’s chef de mission hopes will open the floodgate of victories and a haul of 50 golds as curtains finally go up in the 29th Southeast Asian Games here.

The peerless Tabal, the undisputed national marathon champion the last four years, will challenge Thailand’s defending titleholder Nathata Natharrinnawat for the crown at dawn today, hoping to put the Philippines off to an inspiring start after one silver and two-bronze medal finishes in the days leading to the SEA Games proper.

Taekwondo jin and flag-bearer Kirstie Elaine Alora will lead the Philippine delegation during the march past of nations, a role she grudgingly took over after friend  the original flag-bearer, table tennis bet Ian Lariba was found to have been suffering from serious ailment.

Carreon, the Chef de mssion, is confident the Filipinos will win 50 golds in theeir bid to improve on their sixth place finishin Singapore two years ago.

Joining Alora in leading the large Philippine delegation are Carrion, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) executive director Carlo Abarquez, deputy chief of mission Robert Mananquil and Robert Bachmann and athletes, coaches and officials from archery, athletics, aquatics, taekwondo, netball and sepak takraw.

Tabal finished second to the Thai (3:03:25) in the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore with a time of 3:04:39 but the 27-year-old long distance amazon exceeded that with a record-ripping 2:47:49, her second run below the three-hour barrier, in retaining her Milo Marathon title for the third straight year in December.

Earlier, she set a Philippine record of 2:43.31 in the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon on May 20, 2016 making her the runner of choice to wrest the diadem.

Athletics chief Philip Ella Juico, who sees gold prospects s in three other events in the centerpiece athletics competitions, has arrived to be with his 38 wards at the start of the four-day hostilities.

Taking up the cudgels in the men’s side is Jeson Agravante, whose best personal time of 2:35:13 is a shade slower than the 2:37:10 of Singapore Games bronze medal winner Nguyen Than Hung of Vietnam.

Team Philippines got a silver medal finish from the team event in chinlone, a new sport in sepak takraw, and two bronze medals through Marton dela Cruz in the compound individual of archery and Dela Cruz, Earl Benjamin Yap and Joseph Benjamin Vicencio in the team compound event.

Other athletes seeing action today are the netball team in the semifinals, the women’s rugby sevens team against Thailand, Laos then Singapore and the men’s rugby sevens squad against Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia in that order.

The matches of the day will be completed before the start of the opening rites set at 7 p.m. at the National Stadium.

In Friday’s action, the Philippines ended its campaign in the compound event on a heart-breaking note after Dela Cruz and Amaya Paz-Cojuangco lost to Vietnam’s Chau Kieu Kanh and Tien Cuong Nguyen, 156-159, in the bronze-medal match.