Dagmil, Bagsit, Rider Galedo shine

Pinoys Sunday best net 3 golds

NAY PYI TAW – Three Filipino athletes stood at attention during the raising of the national flag – one with his hand on his chest, the other with tears in his eyes – in a dramatic afternoon of the Philippines’ participation yesterday in the 27th Southeast Asian Games.

Henry Dagmil, the once skinny Olympian who failed twice in his bid in Beijing and London, came back to win the gold he first won in the 2009 SEA Games and lost in 2011, in a herculean show of power in the long jump.

Dagmil won it with a throw over a distance of 7.8 meters, a little lower than his 7.87m mark in 2009 but a lot farther from the 7.71m by the second placed Thai Supanara Sukhasbast, who won it in 2011 in Indonesia. Third was Vietnamese Van Lam Kham in 7.53m.

“I’ve got power in my legs now, what my American coach (Ryan Flaherty) did was to improve the technique,” said Dagmil after he received the gold medal.

In the same venue at the Wunnum Theikdi National Sports Complex, Edgardo Alejan and Archand Christian Bagsit fought the race of their lives, storming past the opposition down the final bend before they themselves engaged in a fierce duel won by Bagsit.

Bagsit took the gold in 47.22 seconds and Alejan the silver in 47.45 seconds in a rare 1-2 finish in the event since Isidro del Prado won the same event in an Asian record time of 45.6 seconds in 1985.

Edi Aryani of Indonesia was third in 47.78 seconds.

Elsewhere, in the outskirts of the city, Mark John Lexer Galedo, the 2012 LBC Ronda Pilipinas champion, won the 50K individual time trial in one hour, 7 minutes. Teammate Ronald Oranza took the bronze in 1:07.50 behind Indonesia (1:07.38)

At the Zayar Their Indoor Stadium 45 minutes away from downtown Nay Pyi Taw, the Philippine basketball pulled away with a 19-point lead in the third quarter en route to an 84-56 win over Malaysia and virtually the title with their sixth straight win.

Athletics’ two golds came with a silver Arnel Ferreira in the discus throw and bronze medal by Riezel Buenaventura in the women’s pole vault (3.80m) won by Thailand in a  record 4.21m. Second was Vietnam in 4.10m.

At the end of the day, the Philippines hiked its gold-silver-bronze medal tally to 10-13-21 for seventh place, including a karatedo gold courtesy of Niño Franco (individual kumite) late Saturday, behind Thailand (43-37-38), Myanmar (37-30-33), Vietnam (35-2-41), Indonesia (31-47-43), Malaysia (21-15-37) and Singapore (15-12-21).

The Filipino cagers’ victory could not yet be included in the medal tally pending the completion of today’s round robin series in the men’s and women’s divisions.