Heading into the final day of competition, the spirited Filipino judokas collected a total of four golds, one silver, and four bronzes to surpass their 3-4-4 gold-silver-bronze haul in the 2003 Vietnam SEA Games.
The 22-year-old Ramirez, an Airman 2nd Class sent Thailand’s Alexander Ralli sprawling on the mat for an ippon (full point) at the 4:05 mark to retain his -73 kgs. crown.
"I really wanted to win because I don’t want to be embarrassed before my countrymen especially to the Cebuanos because they’ve been really supportive to us," said Ramirez.
Ralli nailed the first point of the match, a koka with just 28 seconds gone in the five-minute match, but Ramirez staged a daring fightback to turn back the Thai visitor.
Solomon accomplished the same feat earlier as she fought back from a half-point down with still 4:16 left to conquer Myanmar’s Lay Kalyar Aung in the -63 kgs. final.
Lay was poised to frustrate the large throng of pro-Filipino crowd when he scored a half point in the first 44 seconds of the match.
But Solomon bounced back with a koka in 2:04 before employing a powerful hip technique to pin down Lay at the 1:50 mark.
" The cheers of the crowd inspired me a lot," said Solomon.
Solomon blasted her way to the final round after pulling off a stirring victory over Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Dinh also in come-from-behind fashion.
Nguyen drew first blood with a koka in the first few seconds of the five minute match, but Solomon scored half point off a grapple with 16 seconds left to clinch the win.