Philippines Para show shines brighter

MANILA, Philippines — Chessers Darry Bernardo and Cheyzer Mendoza struck for two gold medals each in blitz yesterday to seal the Philippines’ best ever performance in the ASEAN Para Games in Solo, Indonesia.

Bernardo smashed Malaysian Hanson Ang Ping Ting to seal the men’s B2-B3 individual as well as team gold with Menandro Redor and Arman Subaste while Mendoza, a lawyer from University of the Philippines, took the women’s PI mint in individual and team with Cheryl Angot and Jean-Lee Nacita.

FIDE Master Sander Severino, who had four golds in standard and rapid, went for more but lost via tiebreak to Indonesian FM Maksum Firdaus to settle for silvers in individual and team with Henry Lopez and Felix Aguilera.

Nonetheless, the final-day salvo capped a glorious performance by the chess squad, which went home with a total of 10 mints, helping Team Phl to its most impressive performance in the biennial meet with 28 mints in all, surpassing the 24-gold, 24-silver and 26-bronze harvest in the 2009 KL joust.

Earlier, the Filipinos splashed their way to golden swims at the pool courtesy of the troika of Ariel Joseph Alegarbes, Marco Tinamisan and Gary Bejino.

Alegarbes ruled the 50-meter freestyle S14 in 25.74 seconds to join fellow tanker Angel Otom with three mints apiece.

Tinamisan, for his part, had a sweet win in the 100m freestyle S3 with a clocking of 1:54.15 while Bejino copped his first gold here after a couple of silvers by reigning supreme in the 100m freestyle S6 in 1:13.80 to capped swimming’s outstanding 12-gold effort.

Philippine Olympic Committee Abraham Tolentino and Philippine Paralympic Committee chief Mike Barredo both lauded the efforts of the whole team for a historic effort.

“The para athletes performed so well despite the fact that for more than two years during the pandemic, they didn’t see action in any major international competition,” said Tolentino. “They kept their focus and determination while making themselves physically ready by training well in a bubble environment.”

Barredo, who is back in Manila, credited this sterling showing to the late President Fidel V. Ramos, who had urged Barredo to form the para sports group way back in 1996, which was then known as the Philippine Sports Association of Differently-abled Athletes.

“It was FVR (Ramos’s popular initials) who initiated the formation of the para movement in the country so we pay our tribute to the late President in offering the showing of our athletes in the 11th ASEAN Para Games in Indonesia to him,” he said.