Obstacle course bets,Shooters sparkday-four charge

Dominance Sustained

MANILA, Philippines — From the dance floor of Royce Hotel to Angeles University Foundation Arena, both in Pampanga, then to the equally packed World Trade Center Hall in Manila, Team Philippines carried the fight to Filinvest City in Alabang yesterday and kept its dominant run, sweeping the four gold medals in Obstacle Course to anchor another golden splurge in Day 4 of the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

As the weather improved so did the Pinoy athletes’ performance as they also nailed two shooting golds at the Philippine Marine Range and another one from weightlifting courtesy of SEAG rookie Kristel Macrohon as Team Phl continued to show its depth after winning 10 golds in dancesport, a best 14-gold haul in arnis at the AUF, and bagging seven wushu gold medals at the WTC in the first three days of the 12-day meet.

The fourth-day charge actually stood at seven golds for quite sometime until the muay pair of Jearome Calica and Joemar Gallaza snapped the spell at dusk in Subic with a victory in men’s waikru mai muaythai and James Deiparine delivered the first swim gold for Team Phl in 10 years in record-breaking fashion in men’s 100m breaststroke at the New Clark City Aquatics Center in Capas, Tarlac.

Team Phl thus matched its third-day output of nine golds as it hiked its total tally to 56-41-22 (gold-silver-bronze) as of 8 p.m., keeping a safe lead over Vietnam, which struggled for four golds in the day for 25-32-33 while Malaysia remained at third with 21-12-22 even as Singapore moved from sixth to fourth with 18-12-20 and Indonesia dropped to fifth with 17-27-29.

Thailand, overall champs in 2013 and 2015 until Malaysia reigned at home in 2017, continued to struggle and slipped to sixth in the 11-team field with 11-15-22 followed by Myanmar (1-6-20), Brunei (1-5-5), Cambodia (1-3-17) and Laos (0-0-6) with Timor Leste still without a single medal after four days.

Earlier, Antolin Redentor, Kaizen dela Serna, Divina Monolito and Nicole Moncada timed 03:48.35 to beat the Malaysian squad of Redha Rozlan, Saddam Pittli, Yip Hui Teng and Tan Jie Yi (04:29.28) for the gold in mixed team assist 400mX12 obstacle to fire off the four-gold rush that included victories in mixed team relay 400mX12 and the individual 100mX10 in men’s and women’s divisions of the event which made its debut in the biennial Games.

Diana Buhler, Jeffrey Reginio, Keilah Rodriguez and Nathaniel Sanchez clocked 01:59.56 to capture the relay gold over Malaysia, which timed 02:01.68.

Jeffrey Pascua timed 00:29.92 to beat Rozlan (00:34.01) for the men’s individual while Rochelle Suarez (00:46.70) edged Mae Tejares (00:47.88) in an all-Pinay finale in the distaff side.

“It’s all worth the hard work and sacrifices. I’m so happy for the Philippines,” said Pascua.

Suarez, on the other hand, urged the other Filipinos to take up the sport, saying: “It’s fun and this is for all the Filipinos.”

The Pinoy OCR bets seek to complete their sweep of the six golds staked in Obstacle Course when the finals in the men’s and women’s individual 5kmX20 are held tomorrow, also in Alabang (East Asia Drive).

Over at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum, crowd darling and world champ Carlos Yulo extended his run of woes after winning the gold in the individual all-around and in his pet event floor exercise Sunday, finishing with another silver in parallel bars after settling for the same medals in still rings and pommel horse Tuesday.

The 19-year-old wonder, who had promised a seven-golden sweep in his first SEAG and following his stirring victory in the World Championship in Germany last October, tried to bounce back with a gold medal performance in horizontal bar late in the night but wound up with another silver, bowing to Vietnam’s Thank Phuong Dinh, who scored 13.767 against the Pinoy ace’s 13.667. Singapore’s Sean Yeo took the bronze with 13.567.

Yulo thus closed out with two golds and five silver medals.

Back in Subic, Calica, a former stuntman, and Gallaza scored 9.590 points to foil Malaysia’s Hatem Ramijam and Mohamad Ismail (9.210) with Lorens Walun and Sudirman Uchida of Indonesia taking the bronze with 8.840 points.

The women’s pair of Mae Bayacsan and Irendin Lepatan, however, fell short in their side of the event and took the silver with 9.450 with the Thai duo of Thanawan Thongduang and Ruchira Wongsriwo snaring the gold with 9.470.

Deiparine, meanwhile, set off the country’s bid in medal-rich swimming, beating Vietnam’s Bao Pham Thank with a 1:01.46 clocking. Pham claimed the silver in 1:01.92 while Singapore’s Lionel Khoo copped the bronze in 1:01.98.

Deiparine’s time also broke the 1:01.60 set by Vietnam’s Nguyen Huu in Laos in 2009 and likewise shattered the national mark of 1:02.00 he himself set in the Scottish Championship in United Kingdom.

Alexis Rule also missed the gold in women’s 200m fly with a 2:10.99 clocking, barely losing to Singapore’s Jing Wen Quah, who timed 2:10.97, while Jasmine Alkhaldi took the 100m freestyle bronze in 55.76 seconds that also reset the national mark of 55.90 she posted two years ago in Kuala Lumpur.

Over at the NAS, Macrohon overcame tremendous pressure and broke a long Phl wait in weightlifting after Olympic silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz hoisted the 55kg gold Monday before a big crowd, winning the 71kg gold with a 216kg total (93kg snatch and 123kg clean and jerk).She repulsed Vietnam’s Van Nguyen Thi, who lifted 214.

“I was so pressured (to deliver), having to compete after Hidilyn’s gold and other medalists,” said the 23-year-old Macrohon, from Zamboaga City like Diaz, who was among those at the venue. “I really didn’t expect to medal so I was very, very happy. I just couldn’t express how happy I am.”

She actually tied Ramadani after the snatch but made good on her lift of 123 in clean and jerk although she had to endure a long wait before Nguyen could lift her last attempt at 125 in a bid to snatch the gold. The Vietnamese, however, fouled in her try.

But it was the only other gold lifted by Team Phl in the 10-division event as John Ceniza settled for silver in men’s 55kg, Mary Flor Diaz ended up with bronze in women’s 45kg, Elien Perez wound up fourth in women’s 49kg, so did Dave Pacaldo in men’s 61kg.

Other medalists were Margaret Colonia, silver in women’s 59kg, Nestor Colonia bronze in men’s 67kg, and Ann Elreen Ando, bronze in women’s 64kg.

Over at the Phl Marine Range, Marly Martir proved on target as she assembled a total of 1450-60x to pocket the individual gold in WA 1500 PPC, nipping Indonesia’s Pratiwi Kartikasari (1445-62x) and Yusliana Yusof of Malaysia (1441-49x) with the Phl’s Francette Quiroz barely missing out on the bronze with 1441-48x output.

Martir and Quiroz later teamed up with Elvie Baldivino to clinch the women’s team (WA 1500) gold with 4320-161x with Indonesia taking the silver with 4313-164x and Malaysia settling for bronze with 4279-143x.

The battle for gold medals, meanwhile, slows down a bit in Day 5 today with 28 set to be disputed, including six in swimming at the New Clark City Aquatics Center, and another six in judo at the Laus Group Event Center in Pampanga, while five will be up for grabs in sambo at the AUF gym, two each in underwater hockey at Vermosa Sports Hub in Cavite and fencing at the WTC and one apiece in bowling at Starmall EDSA, cycling in Tagaytay, duathlon mixed relay in Subic, modern pentathlon in Subic, sepak takraw also in Subic, and shooting at the Philippine Marine range.

Action, on other hand, resumes, including those that were postponed due to Typhoon Tisoy, in archery in Muntinlupa Sports Complex, basketball at the MOA Arena, beach volley in Subic, billiards at Manila Hotel Tent, boxing at PICC Forum, chess in Subic, football at Biñan and Rizal Memorial stadium, ice hockey at SM MOA, indoor hockey at LB Centtro Mall and Convention Center, muay in Subic, polo in Calatagan, Batangas, rowing, sailing and windsurfing in Subic, skateboard in Tagaytay and Cavite, squash at the Manila Polo Club, surfing in La Union, volleyball at Philsports in Pasig, E-sports at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

Over in Tarlac, Asian Games bronze medalist Bianca Pagdanganan launched her gold medal drive with a 70 for a one-stroke lead over Thai Kan Bunnabodee in women’s individual play while four shared the lead with 68s in men’s competition, two each from Thailand and Singapore, with Filipino Sean Ramos just behind with 69 heading to the last 36 holes.

At the Philsports Arena, the men’s volley team succeeded where its women’s counterparts had failed Tuesday, beating Vietnam, 25-20, 25-21, 25-12, to barge into the semifinal round.  - Joey Villar, Olmin Leyba, John Bryan Ulanday, Miguel La Torre, Marlowe Montenegro, Rizanelle Beltran