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Nakhon Ratchasima,
Thailand—Team
Philippines relied on the golden efforts of a pair of
polio victims on Tuesday as it kept its precarious grip
of fifth place in the fourth Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean) Para Games at the His Majesty the
King’s 80th Anniversary Stadium.
Josephine Medina, 37, downed countryman Minnie de Ramos,
11-4, 11-5, 11-4, 11-4, in the race-to-four sets table
tennis finals at the Surapat 3 at the Suranaree
University of Technology campus to match her double gold
medal effort in the 2005 Games.
Joel
Balatucal, 27, ruled the discus throw with a heave of
21.51 meters that not only pocketed him the gold but
also broke the Para Games record of 20.33 set by RP’s
Jerico Openia in
Manila.
“I’m so
happy I won, this is for the Philippines,” said an
ecstatic Balatucal, who works as a computer repairman in
Novaliches, also in Filipino. The golden performance
came a day after Medina, the 1987 National Open
champion, teamed up with the one-armed, 33-year-old de
Ramos in topping the Open Class 6-10 section of women’s
doubles.
And
Medina, who has a shorter left leg caused by polio, is
set to win more as she is scheduled to lead RP in the
team events late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
“I hope
to win more gold medals,” said
Medina,
who is based in Marikina City but manages her farm in
Oas, Albay.
Over at
the Surasummanarkarn Building situated at the Suranaree
University of Technology campus, Sander Severino and his
band of gutsy wood pushers looked headed to sweeping all
four gold medals in the men’s wheelchair/ambulant and
visually impaired sections.
Out to
spearhead the country’s defense of its chess title,
Severino, 22, and Henry Lopez, 27, downed countrymen
Joven Mailig and Alexis Elinon, respectively, to share
the lead after the third round with three points apiece.
Rudy
Sarmiento, Abraham Peligro and Francis Ching downed Choo
Min of Malaysia, Pham L. of Vietnam and Raymond Tay of
Singapore, respectively, to remain in close pursuit of
unbeaten Edy Suryanto of Indonesia.
The
highest scorer after the seven-round Swiss System event
bags the gold while the cumulative scores of the best
three players for each country will be added to
determine the team winner.
And it
looked like the Filipinos are going there.
“We
can’t afford to play complacent so I told our players to
win as much games as they can,” said RP team coach
Grandmaster Joey Antonio.
RP was
teetering at fifth with five gold, nine silver and four
bronze medals behind No. 4 Indonesia’s eight-gold,
four-silver and seven-bronze haul.
On their
way to a third-overall championship, the Thais remained
unreachable with a 67-29-29 (gold-silver-bronze) harvest
while the Malaysians and the Vietnamese were hotly
contesting second place with 23-21-10 and 19-19-12
hauls, respectively.
Two
possible gold medals slipped away from the hands of
Roderic Canta and Jesus Pacaldo, who settled for silver
medals in the men’s shot put F57 and 400m T20,
respectively.
Of the
two, Pacaldo, who turned 21 last January 10, came the
closest to snatching a mint after he topped the first of
the two heats of his event only to falter in the finale
against Malaysian Mohd Izwan Bin Foniran, who clocked
53.14 seconds to cop the gold.
Maritess
Bruce captured a shot put silver medal in the F55 class
after a 4.97m, which was only good for second place
behind Malaysian tormentor Lew King Kiew, who had a
5.12m.
Openia,
for his part, could only manage a bronze in the men’s
discuss F56 after he threw a 21.01m to fall behind
Vietnam’s Trinh Cong Luan (30.83) and Malaysia’s Faridul
Masri (27.54).
Ann
Grace Abepo accounted for a bronze medal in the 100m T11
class.
In
wheelchair basketball, RP bounced back from a stunning
53-62 loss to Malaysia with a 90-18 drubbing of
Singapore to keep its flickering gold medal hopes alive.
The
Filipinos, however, would need to sweep their last two
matches including today’s game with the Thais, the
reigning champions, and hope the Malaysians lose a game
to remain in the title hunt. |
