CEBUANOS continue to shine in the 28th Southeast Asian Games after giving the Philippines medals last weekend in Singapore.
After a silver medal finish by Mary Joy Tabal in Women’s marathon, Filipino-Japanese judoka Kiyomi Sarausad Watanabe snagged a gold medal for the Philippines in the Women’s 57-63-kilogram division in judo, while Aiumi Ono, Madille Salinas and Dixie Star Yu helped steer the Philippine Lady Volcanoes to a bronze medal finish in the Women’s Rugby 7s.
Watanabe beat Thailand’s Senatham Orapin via an Ippon in the 3:36 mark for the gold medal at the Expo Hall 2.
Watanabe breezed through the elimination round going unbeaten with wins over Singapore’s Tania Torichon and Vietnam’s Thi Huong Nguyen.
Cebuano veteran pool player Warren Kiamco also earned a gold medal, teaming up with Carlo Biado to win the 9-Balls doubles gold. The two defeated Vietnam, 9-6, in the final.
The Lady Volcanoes, on the other, hand crushed Malaysia to grab the bronze medal.
Sylvia Tuldoc scored the first try in the opening minute for an early 5-0 lead. Ono made it 7-0 with a conversion. Ono then made another try in the sixth minute for a 12-0 lead at halftime.
Rosmarie dela Cruz made it a 17-0 match with a try in the eighth minute, while Salinas, who went off the bench, closed out the match with a try in the 14th minute. The team’s bronze medal followed the men’s team’s gold medal win over Malaysia.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, the Philippines was still stuck at seventh place with a medal tally of 6-10-18. A far cry from host Singapore, which leads with 31-22-42. Vietnam is second with 23-9-29, and is followed by Thailand (22-26-22), Indonesia (13-13-19), Malaysia (11-18-18) and Myanmar (7-10-12).
The Philippines hopes to win more medals today as competition in the medal-rich athletics event kicks off at the Singapore National Stadium, with hammer thrower Caleb John Stuart and pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena expected to deliver two gold medals.
Along with Stuart is veteran Arniel Ferrera in the men’s hammer throw final that gets going at 9:30 a.m. Both will be up against four other athletes, including the games record holder Tantipong Phetchaiya of Thailand.
But Stuart, with his season-best of 67.24m, looks ripe for the gold. Phetchaiya owns the Games record of 62.23 meters set in Myanmar but only had a best of 57.42 this year.
Obiena is favored over six athletes because his 5.21m, which he pulled off in September last year, matched the Games record of 5.21m.
Also seeing action today are Filipino-American Eric Shaen Cray, who recently qualified for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The former three-time All-American Cray will run the 100m heats scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Kayla Richardson (11.78 seconds) and Princess Griffey (11.54s) will also run Tuesday’s heats in the women’s 100m.
Lydia de Vega’s record of 11.28, set in Jakarta in 1987, is still unbroken. De Vega is now based in Singapore as an athletics coach.
Meanwhile, after getting crushed by Myanmar, 5-1, the Philippines will face dangerous Indonesia in men’s football today.