MANILA — After being orphaned of Southeast Asian Games bowling gold medal for over a decade, the Philippine bowling team struck gold twice in the 31st edition of the biennial games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Led by the quartet of Merwin Tan, Patrick Neil Nuqui, Ivan Malig, and Christian Dychangco, the men’s bowling team ended with 5275 pinfalls to bag the gold medal in the team-of-4 event on Thursday at the Royal City Hanoi Bowling Lanes.
Tan rolled 1411 pinfalls for a six-game average of 235.17, while Christian Dychangco backed him up with 1377 pinfalls and an average of 229.50, including a tournament-high 278 in the sixth and final game.
Malig carded 1285 pinfalls for an average of 214.17 while the fourth member of the Philippine men’s bowling team team Nuqui shot 1202 for an average of 200.33.
Malaysia finished with silver with a total of 5161 pinfalls, while Singapore bagged the bronze with 4963. Indonesia finished fourth (4890), followed by Thailand (4691), and Vietnam (4570).
It was Team Philippines’ second bowling gold in the Hanoi SEA Games after Tan captured the singles gold last Monday, which ended the country’s 11-year of thirst for SEA Games bowling gold.
Filipina-American Kayla Richardson, meanwhile, capped off Team Philippines’ campaign in SEA Games athletics by capturing the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter dash on late Wednesday.
Christine Hallasgo, meanwhile, captured silver in women’s marathon, as Negrense Bernalyn Bejoy, Eloisa Luzon, Maureen Schrivers and Robyn Brown bagged a bronze in the Women’s 4x400m Relay and Evalyn Palabrica also won bronze in javelin throw.
Sibol Wild Rift Women’s Team of Christine Natividad, Rose Ann Robles, Charize Doble, Giana Llanes, April Sotto and Angel Lozada captured a gold medal in esports.
Pinoy taekwondo fighters, meanwhile, got shut out for the gold as Dave Cea, Baby Jessica Canabal and Kirstie Alora bowed to the finals opponents to end up with silver medals.
Also with silver medals were table tennis tandem of Richard Gonzales and John Russel Misal, Minalyn Foy-os and Jiah Pingot in wrestling, the quartet of Chloe Isleta, Aubrey Mangaoang, Jasmine Alkhaldi, and Miranda Renner in 4×100 medley relay and Jenelyn Olsym in vovinam.
Karate athletes John Enrico Vazquez, Jayson Macaalay and Rebecca Torres, meanwhile, finished with bronze medals in their respective events./PN
