RP nets four golds in swimming, athletics

A spate of record breaking feats courtesy of hammer thrower Arniel Ferrera and swimmers Daniel Coakley and Ryan Arabejo sparked Team Philippines' resurgence in the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos.

For the third straight staging of the region’s biggest sports conclave, the 28-year-old Ferrera shattered the meet’s hammer throw mark with a heave of 61.62 meters for Philippine track and field’s first-ever gold here. At the nearby pool of the National Sports Complex, Coakley, the great grandson of the so-called “Ilocano Shark," Filipino Olympian Teofilo Yldefonso, celebrated his 20th birthday in style, breaking his own record in the men’s 50-m freestyle with a time of 22.62 seconds. Fellow tanker Arabejo was also in a record mood following his triumph in the 1,500m men’s freestyle (15:37.75) The three remarkable feats easily gave Team Philippines the sting lacking in its campaign in the Games that was badly stalled by a one-gold harvest Saturday, courtesy of the men’s tennis team of Cecil Mamiit, Treat Huey, Patrick John Tierro and Johnny Arcilla. Adding the gold of Rosie Villarito in the women’s javelin throw Sunday, the Philippines now has total medal tally of 12 golds, 16 silvers and 19 bronzes, regaining its old standing at sixth place and relegating host Laos to seventh by virtue of more silver (4) and bronze (19) medals won despite having the same number of gold output. Ten-time champion Thailand has finally overtaken Vietnam in a close battle for overall supremacy. The Thais are on top of the standings with a 28-37-37 tally, with the Vietnamese a close second at 25-22-27. Singapore remains at third (21-12-24) followed by Malaysia (20-20-27) and Indonesia (16-18-26). Ferrera, a serviceman from the Philippine Air Force, bettered the SEA Games record of 60.98 meters he himself established in Nakhonratchasima, Thailand during the 2007 edition of the meet. Two years earlier during the Manila staging of the sportsfest, the champion hammer thrower from Cauayan, Negros Occidental also broke the 12-year record of Malaysian Wong Tee Kui (58.80m) with a heave of 60.47m. “Maganda po ang kundisyon ko, kaya maganda rin ang naging resulta," said Ferrera, whose reign as hammer throw king of the SEA Games began in the 2003 Vietnam edition. Coakley, whose great grandfather was the first Filipino to win an Olympic medal (bronze) in the 1928 Amsterdam Games, reset his own SEA Games mark of 22.80 which he established in the 2007 Thailand Games. After two silver finishes, Arabejo finally hit pay dirt here, with a new record in his pet event that topped the old grade of 15:43.27 owned by Thai Torlap Sethasothan (1995 Chang Mai Games). The 30-year-old Villarito’s heave in the javelin throw (49.69 m) didn’t qualify as a meet record, but good enough to snatch the gold over Lo Thi Hang of Vietnam (45.95). More golds are expected from the Filipino athletes as Ronnie Alcano and Gandy Valle marched to the gold medal round of the 8-ball singles in an all-RP match and four Filipino muay artists — Jonathan Polosan, Romnick Pabalate, Zaidi Laruan and Rolando Claro — advanced into the final of their respective events. Ditto with boxer Harry Tañamor, a 12-4 winner over Htet Aung of Myanmar in their semifinals match at the 48 kg. class. The Filipinos could have added more to their wins but weightlifter Joselito Padilla came up just short in the above-94kg category and the pair of Nino Carog and Zardo Domenios could only manage the silver in synchronized diving. Another lifter, Renante Briones, had to settle for the bronze in the below-94kg. class while similarly booking third place finishes were triple jumper Joebert Delicano, 5,000m runner Julius Sermona and muay artist Ana Marie Rey in the bantamweight division. - GMANews.TV