Philippines stands ground in Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH – Filipino bets in the country’s very own arnis, Olympic sports and the stronghold of obstacle course race did the heavy lifting for Team Philippines in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games that ended yesterday.

The arnisadors showed their might and collared six golds, two silvers and four bronzes to emerge as the top producer for the 840-strong delegation that amassed a grand total of 58 gold medals, 85 silvers and 117 bronzes.

The taekwondo jins took second honors with a 6-1-8 harvest highlighted by a three-peat in the men’s -54kg class by Tokyo Olympian Kurt Barbosa.

Athletics, boxing, gymnastics – teams headlined by Barbosa’s 2020 Games batchmates EJ Obiena, Carlo Paalam, Nesthy Petecio and Caloy Yulo – “surprise package” wrestling and the world record-breaking and 4-of-4 batting OCR athletes delivered four mints apiece.

Obiena scored third straight triumph in pole vault in record fashion to spearhead a 4-10-8 tally for the trackters while the wrestlers exceeded expectations with 4-7-5 after a seven-silver, five-bronze delivery in the previous edition in Hanoi.

Tokyo silver medalists Paalam and Petecio played true to form in ruling the men’s 54kg and women’s 57kg category, respectively, to banner the boxers’ 4-5-1 collection even as three-time individual all-around king Yulo dazzled with two golds and two silvers in gymnastics’ 4-2-2 take.

Sustaining the charge from their six-event sweep in 2019, the OCR stalwarts brought out the broom again in the four events contested here, winning all in world record times.

Fighters from kickboxing and jiu-jitsu struck with 3-4-8 and 3-1-8, respectively, in-between the output of stalwarts from triathlon/duathlon/aquathlon (3-2-1).

Soft tennis netters exceeded expectations and won three golds, a silver and a bronze as converted combatants in kun bukator and the rising swimmers posted identical 2-6-8 harvest.

Karatekas accounted for 2-6-1 while the weightlifting peers of Olympic champ Hidilyn Diaz netted two golds (along with three new SEAG marks) plus four silvers and one bronze.

As in the past two SEAG staging, esports whizzes had a stellar performance and snared 2-1-3.

Gilas Pilipinas re-claimed the cherished men’s basketball 5-on-5 lost previously in Hanoi and joined the judokas (1-1-5), the wushu specialists (1-1-4) the tennisters (1-0-0) in the honor roll of the contingent backed by the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission.

When the dust of battle settled in Cambodia’s maiden hosting, the Filipinos ranked fifth overall behind Vietnam (136-105-114), Thailand (108-96-108), Indonesia (87-80-109) and the home team (81-85-127).

It was a one-rung downgrade from the No. 4 placing in Hanoi but POC president Abraham Tolentino considered it “a strong performance.”

“The medal haul will speak for itself,” said Tolentino, pointing out the fact that the team improved on the 52-mint, 70-silver, 105-bronze output last time.

“The important thing is we surpassed the medal haul last SEA Games and we have reclaimed basketball supremacy in the region,” he added.