CEBUANA Rubilen Amit gave the Philippines another gold medal, as she won the women’s 9-ball event with a 7-2 win over Jessica Chan of Singapore in the 31st Southeast Asian Games at the Hadong District Sporting Hall on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
Amit, a native of Mandaue City, helped prop the Philippines’ campaign in the medal standings in what was a lean day for gold medals. The country nabbed just four on Tuesday, bringing their medal tally to 34 golds, 37 silvers and 47 bronzes. Thailand solidified its grip of second place with 40-40-62, while Vietnam is running away with the overall title with a 95-62-62 count.
Filipino athletes also won four silver medals, two of them in athletics, on top of nine bronzes.
Amit, 40, the winner of the 9-ball gold in 2005 and 2009 before shifting to 10-ball, jumped to an early 3-0 lead against the Singaporean but needed to survive some scare along the way. Chan made it 2-3 before the skillful Amit regained her bearing and won the next four racks to pocket her ninth gold medal in the SEA Games, most of them in 10-ball singles.
Meanwhile, Eric Cray continued his dominance in the 400 meters as he clocked in at 50.41 seconds for his fifth straight 400m gold.
Taekwondo also produced a second gold courtesy of Kurt Bryan Barbosa, who routed Jaijulla Panachai of Thailand 16-7 in the men’s minus 54 kg of taekwondo at the Tay Ho Gymnasium.
The Muay Thai tandem of Islay Erika Bomogao and Rhichein Yosorez perked up the sagging Pinoy spirit later in the day by topping the women’s waikru mai muay contest.