Marathon sweep sparks RP's five-gold harvest

Sparked by tracksters Eduardo Buenavista and Jho-Ann Banayag’s sweep of the marathon events, Team Philippines remained in fighting from by sustaining its gold grind in the in the 25th Laos Southeast Asian Games in Vientianne. Thanks to Buenavista and Banayag’s double victory in the 42.195 km. events for both men and women, the Filipino bets already found themselves owner of two gold medals before noon of Tuesday.

Taking the cue from the two long distance runners, archer Jennifer Chan proceeded to top the women’s individual compound at the National Sports Complex archery range, Nancy Quillotes triumphed in women’s 45 kg category for judo’s first gold while Margarito Angana ruled the men’s 55 kg Greco-Roman event in wrestling. Despite collecting five gold medals for the day, Team Philippines remained at sixth place with a tally of 23-23-35. The Filipinos though, remain in a fighting position for fifth place, currently being held by Indonesia (25-27-48), and just a shade above the host country (22-11-35). A number of gold are still to be disputed in medal rich events such as boxing, athletics, judo, wushu, archery, wrestling and lawn tennis, the country is still within reach of surpassing the sixth place finish it had during the 2007 edition of the meet in Thailand. Three days before competitions come to a close, Thailand continues to show the way with a 50-56-64 medal haul, with Vietnam next (43-44-41), Singapore (31-22-31) and Malaysia (25-29-45). Hardly given a second look, Buenavista and Banayag turned in contrasting performances to underscore athletics’ reputation as the most productive gold producer so far in the country’s campaign in Laos. Showing there’s still enough gas left in his tank, the 31-year old Buenavista won the event by a mile, clocking two hours, 21 minutes and 10.14 seconds, more than half a minute ahead of silver medal winner Yahuza of Indonesia. But more riveting was Banayag’s victory in the women’s class, which she did by overtaking erstwhile leader Sunisa Sailomyen of Thailand entering the stretch for a dramatic ending to the race. Her time of 2:46:34.00 was just 13 seconds ahead of the Thai. Later in the night, Angana provided the icing in the cake for the Filipinos’ campaign. Fired up after being head-butted in the face, the 26-year old wrestler was all the more determined in taking the fight out of his Vietnamese foe, Ho Quang Hai. "Na-blackened ang upper left cheek ko kaya lalo akong nanggigil," said Angana, who only managed to win a bronze (freestyle) in Thailand 2007. The 44-year-old Chan, meanwhile, was as deadly, winning the women’s compound individual gold in her ninth SEA Games and, which she said, would also be her last. Surprisingly, it was not the ageless John Baylon but Quillotes, who delivered first for the RP judokas after she beat Thailand’s Wanwisa Muenjit in the 45kg-and-under category finals at the Chaonuvong Gymnasium Budo Centre. But there were others who also came up short. In his first stab at the long jump in an international competition, former triple jumper Joebert Delicano bagged the silver, faring better than top bet Henry Dagmil, who could only land the bronze. Wrestler Michael Baletin also bagged a silver in the 74kg division of Greco-Roman wrestling. Flyweight Romnick Pabalote failed to follow teammate Zaidi Laruan’s golden effort Monday, landing only the silver in muay. So did light-welter Jonathan Polosan. Table tennis won its first medal, a bronze, through Richard Gonzales in the men’s singles. Also bagging bronze medals were Junmar Aleta, Marbie Avirante and Mark Saavedra who dropped a 0-2 decision to Vietnam in the men’s regu of sepak takraw, Richard Gonzales failed to advance in the final of table tennis singles and Greco Roman wrestler Melchor Tumasis yielded to Muhhamad Aliansyah of Indonesia in the 60kg division. Three wushu entries all ended up with bronze medals in sonshou including the injured Rhea May Rifani, who was brought to a local hospital after spraining her right foot, and Jessie Aligaga and Denver Labador. Another bronze came from Quillotes and Noemi Candari in the jyu no kata garnering 452 points behind Thailand’s B. Chuthatip and T. Pitima (469) and Vietnam’s Nguyen Lan Linh and Le Ngoc Van Anh (465). Earl Benjamin Yap accounted for another bronze in the men’s compound individual bowing to eventual gold medallist Igustin Nyoman Purihito of Indonesia, 113-111. Purihito beat Chua Boon Rong Adriel of Singapore in the finals 115-111. Rubilen Amit, winner of the 8-ball singles gold Monday, easily hurdled Laos’ Suvandid Saeduode 7-1 in her opening round assignment in the 9-ball singles, as did Dennis Orcollo, who beat Brunei’s Teo Chee Soon 9-5. – GMANews.TV