Despite wins in taekwondo and muay, PHL falls to worst-ever SEA Games finish

NAY PYI TAW – Team Philippines tried valiantly, but still fell short in realizing their two modest goals for the 27th Southeast Asian Games.

Heavyweights Kirstie Elaine Alora and Kristopher Robert Uy came up with gold medals in taekwondo and so did Preciosa Ocaya in muay on Saturday, but their efforts were not enough to enable the Filipinos to achieve their twin targets of retaining sixth place overall and hitting the 30-gold plateau.

The sepak takraw team, made up of Emmanuel Escote, Jason Hurte and Rhey Jhey Ortouste, are still in the hunt for the men’s doubles gold, to be awarded Sunday, before the closing ceremonies at the Wunna Theikdi Stadium.

Yet it is highly unlikely the same trio, which won bronze two years ago and is facing Laos for a sure silver on Sunday morning, is going to get past the winner of the other semifinals match between defending champion Indonesia and 2011 runner-up Myanmar.

And so the Filipinos most likely will finish with just 29 gold medals and an overall finish that would be the country's worst-ever since they joined the Games in 1977.

The Team Philippines that took part in the 1999 edition of the biennial meet in Brunei actually had less gold medals, 20, but still wound up fifth, while the 1989 contingent to Kuala Lumpur won only 26.

Blame it on the big strides made by host Myanmar, which denied the Filipinos at least six wins in boxing, karatedo and, most recent, muay, en route to a 78-gold haul and a second-place finish behind sure overall winner Thailand.

It marks the first time the country formerly known as Burma finished inside the top three since 1979 and in the top five since 1983 in Singapore.

Thailand had the twin satisfaction of denying the hosts’ ultimate goal of taking the overall crown by emerging from the 11-team field with 101 gold medals, as of 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

The Filipinos’ likely 101-medal harvest though far surpassed expectations for a lean 208-athlete contingent handicapped by token participations in some events and non-participation in such medal-rich sports as petanque, vovinam, traditional boat race and chinlone and other events.

In all, the Filipinos took part in only 167 out of the 460 events in the meet that actually started December 4, but formally opened December 11.

“I’m proud of our athletes,” said PHL chief of mission Jeff Tamayo. “They showed heart despite the odds being stacked against us from the start and made us all proud.”

The finishing kicks were provided up to the penultimate day of competitions, with a defending champion showing the way.

Alora proved unfazed by the credentials of Sorn Davin of Cambodia, fashioning a 6-4 victory over the  London Olympic veteran in the women's over 73kg category.

Uy also took the long route in surviving Quang Duc Dinh of Vietnam before prevailing via a 7-6 count in the over 87kg category during the final day of taekwondo competitions at the Wunna Theikdi Stadium.

Accounting for the four silver medals Team Philippines won for the day are taekwondo-jin Francis Agojo, muay fighters Philip Delarmino and Jonathan Polosan and the Asean chess team of GMs Darwin Laylo, Rogelio Antonio, Eugene Torre, and John Paul Gomez.

The PHL chessers actually wound up tied for the lead with Thailand, but lost out due to the tiebreak.

Delarmino’s loss to Saw Dar Pot of Myanmar in the under-54kg finals was also a bitter one to take as he actually knocked Saw four times in the course of the three-round fight and landed the more powerful punches,  but seemed to have done nothing to impress the judges. - SPIN