MANILA, Philippines – With victories in tennis and in chess, Team PLDT remained well entrenched atop the field even as Maynilad and Meralco came through with their own stirring triumphs in the continuation of the 2016 MVP Olympics Wednesday in various playing venues.
The PLDT bets stamped their class on standard chess and in men’s doubles and mixed doubles in tennis while also raking runner-up honors in blitz chess and in women’s doubles in their sustained dominance in this sports conclave among employee athletes under the giant MVP Group of Companies.
In basketball, the PLDT quintet topped titleholder Meralco, 74-62, to keep an unbeaten run heading to the crossover knockout semifinals today.
It will be PLDT, under coach Bong Ramos, versus Team MediaQuest under coach Alfred Bartolome with the backing of Philippine STAR/Business World president Miguel Belmonte. The other semifinal match pits the Adonis Tierra-mentored MPTC team against Meralco under coach Patrick Fran.
Meralco and Maynilad snared a gold medal each Wednesday with the former ruling the blitz chess and the latter copping the women’s doubles plum.
With four days left in the 12-day meet, SPi Global, finally barged into the medal tally with a pair of bronze medals in chess.
Narquingden Reyes, Paulo James Florendo, Joseph Navarro and Benjamin Jesus Lising completed their title romp in standard chess with a 2.5-1.5 drubbing of Maynilad in the final round.
Reyes and Florendo delivered full points on boards two and four, Navarro drew with Rome Lord Guerra on board three and Lising lost to Dandel Fernandez on top board.
Tollways finished second with nine match points, three behind PLDT, while SPi Global edged Meralco via tiebreak for third place.
Carlos Leonardo of Team Meralco bagged the gold in Olympics Blitz (Open), with the silver medal going to PLDT’s Nicolas Estenor and the bronze to SPi Global’s Jayson Utayde.
In tennis, PLDT’s Irwin de Guzman and Martin Ramos outfought Maynilad’s James Pang and Tomasito Fuentes for top honors in men’s doubles, with another PLDT duo of Gary Dujali and Trudy Amoranto besting Maynilad’s Edgardo Canas and Ma. Christina Ojeda for top podium finish in mixed doubles.
Maynilad foiled PLDT’s sweep bid in the Meralco tennis courts as the tandem of Julie Botor and Karina Guillermo ripped Meralco’s Noelle Zoleta and Melynne Guinto in the women’s doubles finale.
Mark Ian Quirante dominated with 18 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals against a single error as he powered PLDT past the Yousef Aljamal-led Meralco in basketball.
Ron Guerrero and Magi Sison contributed double-digit outputs off the bench for the PLDT men who walloped the Orangemen, 29-17, in the payoff period.
In the semis, PLDT will have to contend with MediaQuest with a core group of players from The Philippine STAR – an undisputed dominant force in press/media basketball for a long time now.
Nino Marquez, a stocky guard with a brief stint with Air21 in the PBA, banners the MediaQuest team that includes Ver Roque, Lester Reyes, Gio Coquilla, Nino Sangalang, Arden Guiyab, Randel Reducto, Chris Corbin, Jhong Bondoc, Raymond Maconocido, Mario Geocada, Mark Casanova, Mel Epres, Al Morante and Jesse Bustos.