Young Pinoy woodpushers now with 18 golds in ASEAN tiff

MANILA, Philippines – Jerlyn San Diego, Kylen Joy Mordido and Michael Concio Jr. plucked a pair of gold medals each to tow the Philippines to an 18-gold haul after the standard event of the 18th Association of Southeast Asian Nation Age Group Championship in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia Thursday night.

San Diego, Mordido and Concio reigned supreme in the individual event of the girls’ under-12, girls’ U16 and boys’ U12 while towing the country to the team golds in their respective divisions of this annual event that drew participation from the best in the Southeast Asian region and some players from Asia.

San Diego downed Malaysian Vidhya Mahindran and then edged Indonesian Laysa Latifah, who trounced Malaysian Zhiwei Ong, via tiebreaks to take home the gold.

Mordido smashed Malaysia’s Syed Adnan Sharifah Nur Izzat to run away with the crown while Concio slammed another local bet Zakaria Ahmad Adam Mukhriz to dominate his age group.

Daniel Quizon split the point with See Siang Fergus Lim to clinch the gold.

Interestingly, San Diego, Mordido, Concio and Quizon all came from Dasmarinas, Cavite.

Also delivering the golds for the country were Kaye Lalaine Regidor (GU8), Al Basher Buto (BU8), Ruelle Canino (GU10), Venice Vicente (G20) and Jeth Remy Mordido (BU20).

The Filipinos, whose trip was backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines, raked in nine individual golds, five silvers and nine bronzes plus nine more team golds.

They are expecting to rake in more as the rapid event started Friday and ends Saturday while the blitz side is scheduled Sunday night.