Tough, Resolute, Unyielding

Team Philippines bucks slow start with late surge in another nine-gold harvest

MANILA, Philippines — After four days of relentless drive, Team Philippines decelerated in its assault on the gold medals that came in few and far between until the judokas and sambo fighters produced two gold medals each late in the day in Pampanga to spike a third straight nine-gold haul in Day 5 of the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

It took the courage and savvy of a lady rider, the brilliance of the skate board bets and the resiliency of the young pentathletes to save an otherwise lackluster campaign by the Filipino athletes, who sizzled and basked in sun and rain with a wave of victories in the first four days only to be slowed down by setbacks when only 29 gold medals were disputed in various cluster venues in Pampanga, Tarlac, Tagaytay and Manila.

But judokas Shugen Nakano and Kiyomi Watanabe pinned down their respective rivals and pinned down the golds in the -66kg and -63kg divisions, respectively, with the former defeating Indonesia’s Pradetiyo Budi and the latter successfully retaining her crown against Malaysia’s Nik Norbaizura Nik Azman at the Laus Group Event Center.

The Pinoys also bagged three bronze medals courtesy of Khrizzie Pabulayan (women’s 52kg), Rena Furukawa (women’s 57kg) and Keisei Nakanop (men’s 73kg).

Over at the Angeles University Foundation gym, MMA champion Mark Striegl overpowered Singapore’s Ashvin Jaswant Singh, 8-0, to rule the 74kg division in sambo while Chino Sy accounted for the other gold in the sport which is a cross between judo and wrestling with a 4-1 decision over Gary Chow, also of Singapore, in the 82kg division.

Meanwhile, Rene Catalan, an Asian and SEAG gold medalist and an MMA contender, sees action today in the men’s 57kg category.

Fencer Jylyn Nicanor delivered the ninth gold for Team Phl by edging Indonesia’s Permatasari Diah, 15-14, in the finale before a roaring crowd at the World Trade Center.

It was a thrilling victory for Nicanor, who had to claw back from 5-8, 13-14 deficits to snatch the gold, scoring the last two points that had to be reviewed before she could claim the crown.

She took off her mask, broke down in tears as the crowd roared for the sport’s first gold after near-misses in other categories. She later offered her medal to her mom Emelita. With a 65-45-34 (gold-silver-bronze) tally, the Philippines pulled away from Vietnam, which settled for four golds for a 31-34-41 count with six days left in the meet and 328 gold medals still up for grabs. The last day on Dec. 11 stakes just one gold in beach handball.?Indonesia grabbed the day’s spotlight by raking in 10 golds, moving past two rivals from fifth with a 27-36-39 haul, with Singapore also gaining the No. 4 spot with 26-19-29.

Defending overall champion Malaysia dropped to fifth with just two gold medals won in the day for a 23-16-24 tally while Thailand, winner in the 2013 and 2015 Games, made quite a move with a five-gold harvest but remained at sixth with a 16-20-30 mark.

Completing the list are Cambodia (2-3-17), Myanmar (1-8-23), Brunei (1-5-5) and Laos (0-2-10) with Timor Leste still in pursuit of a first medal.

In Tagaytay, cycling produced its third gold in road individual time trial as Jermyn Prado flashed superb form and clocked 44:44.742 to beat Singapore’s Luo Yiwei, who timed 44:48.518 with Thai Phetdarin Somrat claiming the bronze in 44:58.152 in Tagaytay.

She thus joined mountain bike downhill winners Lea Belgira and Derick Farr in the sport’s gold medal roster with Nino Surban and Eleazar Barba Jr. coming through with silvers and Avegail Rombaon and John Flores bagging a pair of bronze medals.

Asian Games gold medalist Margiely Didal ran away with the Game of S.K.A.T.E. gold in skateboarding, also in Tagaytay, and led a 1-2 finish by the Pinays as Nicole Means pocketed the silver while Daniel Ledermann took the gold in the men’s side of the event, one of those earlier postponed due to Typhoon Tisoy Tuesday.

Over in Subic, Ormoc City teens Samuel German and Pincess Arbilon provided the fourth gold, in record fashion, as they became the first Modern Pentathlon champions by ruling the beach laser mixed relay event.

The duo covered the 800m, four-lap, laser-run Olympic sport in 13 minutes and 27.34 seconds to edge Thai’s Narong Deck Taparak and Muktapha Changhin, who timed 13:28.42.

Frada Saleh and Cintya Nariska of Indonesia closed 13:59.54 to settle for bronze after sweeping the individual events earlier.

“We told each other that we’d bounce back after our losses in the individual events,” said German, 18, who settled for silver in the individual competition. “And we did and we’re thankful to be part of history and add to the country’s medal haul.”

“I’m honored to be part of it, what more being a gold medalist,” said Arbilon, 17 and a Grade 12 student at Ormoc City Regional Sports Academy. She ended up fourth in the individual event with Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore taking the gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

The other Pinoy bets, meanwhile, fell short in duathlon mixed relay with individual gold medalist Monica Torres, Efraim Inino, Pauline Fornea and Emmanuel Commendador settling for bronze, Nestor Dinopol bagging the silver in mixed Benchrest Air Rifle (Heavy Varmint) in shooting, and Khrizzie Pabulayan claiming the bronze in women›s judo (52kg).

The national women’s volley team also bowed out of the gold medal race, yielding to powerhouse Thailand, 16-25, 22-25, 32-34, for a second straight loss in the four-team field, The Nationals play the Indonesians on Saturday at the close of the prelims.

The Pinay spikers rallied from a huge deficit in the third to force extension but blew a number of set points and the Thais re-imposed their will at the finish to pound out the tough win before a roaring crowd at the PhilSports Arena.

In swimming, Remedy Rule, Nicole Oliva, Xiandi Chua and Jasmine Alkhaldi staved off a medal shutout as they took the bronze in women’s 4x200 free relay at the New Clark City Aquatics Center.– With Olmin Leyba, Joey Villar,  John Bryan Ulanday, Rizanelle Beltran,  Marlowe Montenegro, Miguel La Torre