The first gold medalist of Team RP is ...

Was it athletics or aquatics?

After the Philippines won two gold medals yesterday morning, a serious question was raised on which sport truly delivered the country’s first gold medal in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games.

According to the Games’ official schedule, the finals of women’s long jump was set at 9 a.m. at the Rizal Memorial Stadium and that of women’s 3-meter synchronized springboard at 9:30 at Trace College in Los Banos, Laguna.

While the number of entries and the format of the competition may favor athletics, it’s not really easy to determine where the country’s first gold in the Games was won yesterday.

Maristella Torres, the national record holder, won the gold in women’s long jump while Olympian Sheila Mae Perez and Ceseil Domenios ruled their event in synchronized diving.

Joseph Dumuk, who heads the Team Philippines Secretariat, which is tasked to handle results gathering and documentation of the RP athletes, had no doubts that it was athletics, which broke the ice.

"The first text message we got informing us of a victory was from athletics. So it must be athletics, and not aquatics, which won for the country its first gold," said Dumuk.

"It’s been quite some time before we got a text from our people in Los Banos that we won the gold in synchronized diving," added Dumuk.

"We’re talking about the gold here, and I don’t think it would take long for you to break news that your athlete had won the gold. Immediately, you want to break that news through text," he said. — Abac Cordero