World Champions carry Philippine hopes

MANILA, Philippines — Funny but two of the country’s three reigning world champions remain in search of a SEA Games gold and while both are tipped to finally snare the elusive medal at home, the other is expected to capture not just one but six when they launch their respective bids in various fronts in the 30th edition of the biennial games.

Three times a final loser, boxer Nesthy Petecio hopes to finally nail it this time before her countrymen though observers stressed that the 27-year-old fighter from Davao del Sur must develop that killer’s instinct needed in her sport that had been conspicuously missing in her past SEAG bids.

“She’s too friendly and there’s this tendency for her to be a little bit soft with her rivals,” said one sports official.

But her recent victory in Russia that saw her humble a hometown bet no less to snare the featherweight crown in the World Championships should make Petecio the favorite in the 57-kg division that also features tough fighters from Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia among others.

Boxing, which stakes 13 gold medals, including eight in men’s, will start Dec. 4 at the PICC Forum 2 with the hosts vying in all events.

Like Petecio, Olympic silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz is also itching to lift her first SEAG gold medal after a two-silver (2011 and 2013), one-bronze (2007) effort with the Zamboaga City ace confident of living up to expectations in weightlifting which is making its SEAG comeback after missing out the calendar in the last two editions.

The amiable Diaz, who ended the country’s 20-year Olympic medal drought with a silver medal feat in Brazil in 2016, also won the gold in the Asian Games last year, making the lifter to beat in the 55kg category of the event set to start today at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

But while Petecio and Diaz are all set to add the SEAG gold to their trophy cabinet, gymnast Carlos Yulo is targetting not just one but six golds right in his first foray in the region’s premier sporting show.

Yulo put the country on the world stage by ruling the artistic gymnastics in Germany last month that also netted the diminutive 19-year-old star a berth in next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

The gymnastics team is targeting 10 gold medals with Yulo keen on winning seven, including the individual all-around category of the event which also gets going today at the newly renovated Rizal Memorial Basketball Coliseum.

But the young man and the two ladies are just but a slew of Pinoy athletes setting out to wage war with the region’s best and the brightest starting today in pursuit of the gold medals as the country bids to duplicate its “Miracle of 2005” where it played no gracious host to 10 neighboring countries and claimed the overall championship.