MANILA – Negrenses Ariel Joseph Alegarbes and Sander Severino added two medals each for Team Philippines in the 12th ASEAN Para Games held at the Morodok Aquatic Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The Victorias City, Negros Occidental-native Alegarbes continued his medal haul in the competition as he captured a gold medal in the men’s 200-meter individual medley SM14 in record fashion.
Alegarbes captured the gold medal in the said event with two minutes and 18.19 seconds to erase the previous record of Malaysian para swimmer Khoo Yin Jun of two minutes and 27.23 seconds.
The Negrense para swimmer also captured a silver in men’s 100-meter butterfly S14 with 1:00.73 clocking behind eventual winner Muhd Imaan Aiman of Malaysia, who finished the race with 1:00.35.
Earlier in the competition, Alegarbes captured a gold medal in the men’s 50-meter butterfly S14 event before settling for a silver medal finish in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke event.
The Silay City-native Severino, on the other hand, captured two silver medals in the men’s individual rapid chess PI and in the team rapid event with Henry Roger Lopez and Jasper Rom.
Also in chess, rapid gold winners Darry Bernardo and Cheyzer Mendoza all stayed on course in adding another one as they led their respective divisions after three rounds in the standard division.
Over at the Table Tennis Hall also in Morodok, the Filipino paddlers produced a pair of bronzes courtesy of Smith Billy Cartera and Racleo Martinez (men’s class 4 team event) and Leo Macalanda, Jobert Lumanta and Jayson Ocampo (men’s class 8).
In athletics, King James Reyes saved the best for last as he finally struck gold in the men’s 800 meters T46 where he timed in two minutes and 13.22 seconds after a pair of silver-medal efforts in 5000m Sunday and 1500m Monday.
Rosalie Terrefiel and Andrei Kuizon likewise snared a gold medal each with the former reigning supreme in women’s javelin F11 event and the latter ruling men’s shot put F54/54 event./PN
