Nine golds cap Phl's SEAG campaign

PALEMBANG – Two Filipinos provided the sparkle in the deadly, 500-year-old art of wushu, a 19-year-old rider ripped the opposition apart on the tracks of Jakarta and the netters snatched the very last gold at stake in lawn tennis in the Philippines’ farewell performance in the Southeast Asian Games yesterday.

By late afternoon, thirty-one-year-old Diego Lorenzo, riding Grace, and Tonette Leviste, aboard new horse Magic, cleared the obstacles without a penalty and made it a 1-2 finish in the show jumping event.

In fin swimming, teener Danielle Faith Sanglap won the gold in the 50m surface event to add to the bronze of 4X100m bi-fins team of Franz Garett Baa, Leonard Angelo Matthew Earl Rodriguez and Mike Godoy won last Sunday.

At the Swarma Dwipa Hotel in downtown Palembang, Wesley So outmaneuvered his last opponents in the remaining boards to claim the gold in individual blitz chess after nine quick rounds completed yesterday.

Late in the night, lightweight Charly Suarez and light welterweight Dennis Galvan disposed of their respective Indonesian rivals in varying fashions to bag the boxing crowns, capping the Filipinos’ SEAG best nine-gold haul in one day in the penultimate playdate of competitions.

Suarez jarred Matius Mandiangan with two standing 8-counts on his way to a one-sided 26-7 victory in their 60kg duel while Galvan eked out a tough 14-12 win over Afdan Backtila in their 64kg encounter.

But the strong finish hardly moved the Philippines in sixth place overall with a 36-55-76 tally, 34 short of the projected 70 gold medals of the Philippine Sports Commission.

Host Indonesia had an impressive haul of 168-145-133 not counting the 14 gold medal events in paragliding and the gold in the sport close to every Indonesian’s heart – football.

They were to play Malaysia in the finale of the centerpiece event of the SEA Games late last night.

Thailand was a distant second but was proud to have breached the century mark with 105-92-118 while Vietnam was third with 95-90-100, well above its projection of 70 gold medals.

Malaysia was also a proud fourth with 55-47-74 while the tiny nation of Singapore had 42-45-73, also beyond reach by the Philippines.

Mark Eddiva, retained his 2009 title in the 65 kg sanshou event, while Eduard Folayang, an Ultimate Fighting Challenge champion, reigned in the 70 kg class for the couple of golds wushu contributed on top of four silver and three bronze medals

Teenager John Rene Mier topped the 30km point race, matching the gold medal feat of compatriot Alfie Catalan in the 4,000m individual pursuit on Sunday,

In mixed doubles, the team of Denise Dy and Conrad Treat Huey waited 24 hours to get their hands on the Indonesians as rains the night before flooded the courts of the Jakabaring Sriwijaya Sports Center.

When water was mopped out the next day after a brief drizzle, they outfought the tandem of Jessy Rompies and Christopher Rungkat of host Indonesia, 6-4, 3-6, 10-6, to salvage the only gold for the Philippines after a silver in the team and men’s doubles and bronze medal finishes in the men’s and women’s singles and women’s doubles.

Filipino superstars tried hard to pull off gold medal feats in other fronts but failed.

So yielded the standard chess gold medal to fellow GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia after drawing his last two games, while Rulp Ylem Jose matched that finish after losing to Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Mai Hung in the women’s side of the event. Mark Paragua took the bronze in the blitz event.