Medina grabs fifth gold in Para Games

NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand—Josephine Medina capped her amazing effort by snaring her fifth table tennis gold medal as the Philippines posted its best finish when the fourth Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Para Games draws to a close today at the sprawling His Majesty The King’s 80th Anniversary Stadium here.

Medina, a 37-year-old double gold medalist in the 2005 Manila Para Games, trimmed Indonesian Suwatri Suwatri, 11-3, 11-7, 11-4, in the singles Class 8 to complete her spectacular five-gold feat.

“I dedicate this victory to our countrymen,” said Medina, a former Polytechnic University of the Philippines standout who topped the 1987 National Open in spite of a shorter left leg caused by polio during her childhood.

Minnie de Ramos, 33, earlier copped the gold in the singles Class 10 when she clobbered Ines Fatima Olivera Pires of Timor Leste, 11-6, 11-8, 11-4, 11-2, in the race-to-four  finals to surpass her golden double in Manila with a third gold.

“This is really my target –  to win more than two gold medals here,” said De Ramos, who lost an arm in a meat grinder accident when she was still six years old.

Powerlifter Adeline Dumapong-Ancheta, for her part, ruled the 82.5-kg class to reaffirm her status as the best in the sport after  record-breaking lifts of 112.5kg and 115kg.

Over at the track, Isidro Vildosola showed why he’s one of the best middle distance runners in the Games by ruling the 1,500-meter race in 4 minutes, 36.96 seconds, besting Malaysian Ahmad Rafee Arifin (4:37.09) and

Vietnamese Doan Cong Manh (4:38.28).

Medina’s other victories came in the double Class 10 with Purification Mingarine, singles Open Class 6-10, doubles Open Class 6-10 with De Ramos and the Team Class 10 with De Ramos and Mingarine again.

The final-day feat of Medina and De Ramos gave the RP table tennis squad its sixth gold medal that went with three silver and a bronze medal, the second best effort next to the track and field team, which finished with six gold, nine silver and eight bronze medals.

And Vildosola, who went without a gold medal going into the fifth and final day of competition, made sure the Filipino athletes would not go home with a gold on the final day after suffering a fourth day drought Thursday.

At press time, the Philippines had 17 gold, 21 silver and 19 bronze medals for fifth place overall.

The Thais have finished way ahead of the competition with a 235-103-80 (gold-silver-bronze).

Overall, the Filipinos finished with the best effort after four editions of the Para Games by placing fifth, which is a better finish compared to their performance in Manila.

There, the Filipinos harvested more gold medals with 22 but wound up sixth behind Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Myanmar.