And those gold medals did not only make host Mayor Edward Hagedorn ecstatic over the progress the team made in the sport, but it also brought bright hopes for the 23rd Southeast Asian Games which the country is hosting later this year.
The golds – two of six staked in the tournament – came from Puerto Princesa Philippines-A and the Manila-based men’s Philippines-B squads.
Both titles were in the sport’s hoop event where five players shoot or kick the takraw into three hoops suspended in the air, each goal made scoring 10 points, in a 15-minute period.
The Philippine teams also clinched the silver medals, thus giving the hosts a two-gold, two-silver haul with one more day left Tuesday in the week-long event organized by the Philippine Amateur Sepak Takraw Association (PASTA).
Puerto Princesa’s Rhea Padrigo, Gelyn Evora, Irene Apdon, Josefina Maat, Sarah Catain and Rose Ann Soringa made seven cross jump kicks — the most difficult in the event — to beat out Philippines-B of Deseree Autor, Eden Bernardo, Gelleni Navarro, Karah Elizabeth Festin, Jean Rose Babelonia and Lannibelle Alipan and Vietnam in the tiebreak for the gold medal. All three teams tied for 170 points in regulation, thus the need for the tiebreak based on the degree of difficulty of the kicks.
The Manila-based men’s Philippines-B of Metodio Suico, Harrison Castañares, Hector Memarion, Danilo Alipan and Michael Jose had 270 points, 70 of them from Suico, to bag the gold medal over Puerto Princesa homegrown-laden Philippines-A (Raffy Dagaraga, Jose Gernale, Roy Lanuza, Mark Fernandez, Mergie Quinta and Eric Franco) and Vietnam.
Philippines-A and Vietnam finished with similar 240 points.