2 bronzes for Calapatan; 2 golds for Malaysians

Danica Calapatan snared two bronze medals for Team Philippines even as Malaysia roared back to contention by capturing a pair of gold medals in the penultimate day of the 12th ASEAN Schools Gymnastics Championships at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Calapatan, 13, finished third in the individual all-around event of rhythmic gymnastics where she tallied a total score of 9.706 points she highlighted by posting the highest score in rope with 13.950 to salvage a bronze.

Malaysian Wan Siti Haniza captured the gold with a 10.231 on excellent performances in ball (13.550) and clubs (13.875) while Thai Chariya Srisamat booked the silver with a 9.781 output.

Calapatan, a bronze medal winner in rhythmic rope and clubs in the 2005 Manila Southeast Asian Games, was also part of the RP squad that took the bronze in the team event behind Malaysia and Thailand, which ended up the gold and silver medalists, respectively. The Filipinos actually had an aggregate score of 120.85 on Calapatan’s effort and Sheryll Contillo’s 8.369 (seventh) and 8.269 (eighth). Jenny Garcia’s 5.813 did not count.

Malaysia, for its part, got the boost from Srisamat, Natbaree Chimplee’s 9.388 (fifth) and Sommanassa Saengsam-an’s 6.169 (15th).

Calapatan, who has trained for three straight months now, could spring a surprise or two in the individual rhythmic gymnastics event of this four-day, five-nation tournament organized by the Philippine Sports Commission.

"I’ll try my best to win a gold medal," said the first year high school student of Liceo de Picholo Santo in Muntinlupa City, who had a chance of striking gold in either clubs or rope event or both.

The Malaysians’ golden efforts in rhythmic moved them up from fifth and dead last to second overall on a three-gold, three-silver and two-bronze medal haul.

The Thais climbed from second to first place overall with three gold, four silver and three bronze medals while the Singaporeans third with a 3-2-4 (gold-silver-bronze) harvest.

The Indonesians skidded from third to fourth spot with a 3-2-1 haul while RP fell from fourth to the bottom on a 2-3-5 tally.