MANILA – Team Philippines was off to a strong start in the 30th Southeast Asian Games, showing dominance in gymnastics, triathlon, sepak takraw, and arnis to take the early lead in the medal tally.
Tokyo Olympics-bound gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo lived up to the billing. He captured the gold medal in the artistic gymnastics individual all-around event.
Yulo scored 84.900 in the six routines to easily beat Dinh Phuong Thanh of Vietnam who tallied 82.350 for the silver medal.
Meanwhile, Kim Mangrobang remained the queen of Southeast Asian triathlon. She captured her second consecutive SEA Games gold, while John Chicano emerged as gold medal winner in the men’s category.
Mangrobang clocked in at 2:02:00 – she registered a time of 21:38 in the swim part, 1:03:36 on the bike, and 35:43 during the run.
Fellow Filipina Kim Kilgroe completed a 1-2 finish with her 2:05:02 clocking.
It was also a gold-silver medal finish in the men’s triathlon with Chicano finishing on top with a total time of 1:53:26, finishing the swim course at 21:19, bike at 1:00:07, and run at 31:04.
Andrew Remolino bagged the silver medal.
The Philippine sepak takraw women’s team of Deseree Autor, Josefina Maat, Sarah Jean Kalalo, Jean Marie Sucalit, and Mary Ann Lopez won a gold in the hoops event, same with its men’s team of Metodio Suico, Jason Huerte, John Bobier, Emmanuel Escote, and John Morcillos.
In arnis, Dexter Bolambao notched a gold medal in the 55 kg and below. Nino Talledo also delivered gold in the Arnis-Men’s Featherweight +55kg less than 60kg, while Villardo Canumay ruled the live stick match.
Wushu star Agatha Wong also successfully defended her gold medal in the women’s taijiquan after getting 9.670 points from the jury.
Silver medalist was Basma Lachar of Brunei at 9.550 while Vietnam’s Tran Thi Minh Huyen snagged the bronze with 9.530.
In men’s mountainbike cross country, Nino Surban and EJ Flores settled for a silver and bronze medal, while Avegail Rombaon ended third in the women’s mountain bike cross country race.
The Philippine men’s polo team settled for a silver medal after losing to defending champs Malaysia, 5.5–7.0, while Mary Flor Diaz settled for bronze in weightlifting, same with Daniel Parantac in men’s wushu taijiqian.
As of this writing, the Philippines is on top of the medal standings with 13 golds, five silver and five bronze medals, followed by Vietnam (3-7-4), Singapore (2-2-2), Thailand (2-1-4) and, Malaysia (2-1-1)./PN
