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Nakhon
Ratchasima, Thailand—Joel Balatucal captured his second
athletics gold medal for Team Philippines Wednesday as
the fourth Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)
Para Games enters its last two days at the sprawling His
Majesty The King’s 80th Anniversary Stadium.
Arnel
Aba, already a winner of two silver medals, gave the
Philippines its first swimming gold after he ruled the
200-meter freestyle S9 class in two minutes and 31.03
seconds, outclassing Thai Samak Nambut (2:36.10) and
Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Nha (2:40.23).
Balatucal, 27, seized the shot put gold in 8.17 meters
to shatter countryman Jerico Openia’s record of 7.4
meters the latter registered in the 2005 Manila Games.
It was
Balatucal’s second straight golden effort and both came
in record-breaking fashions. He also eclipsed Openia’s
20.33-meter discus throw mark with 21.51.
“Nothing
beats this feeling,” said an ecstatic Balatucal, a polio
victim who repairs computers for a living in Novaliches.
Deterson
Omas zoomed his way to the finals of the 60-kg division
only to lose to Vietnamese Tran Viethung at the start of
the judo competitions at the Kebkanjana Hall of the
Chanapolkan Institute of Technology.
The
Filipinos remained at fifth spot with eight gold, 16
silver and nine bronze medals, barely ahead of Myanmar
with seven gold, seven silver and five bronze medals.
The
hosts Thais have clinched their third overall
championships with two days to go after a whopping
114-gold, 52-silver and 48-bronze medal haul, way ahead
of the Vietnamese and the Malaysians, the first edition
winners, with 37-28-19 and 29-29-21 harvests,
respectively.
In
chess, paraplegic Sander Severino smashed Vietnamese
Tran Tri to notch his fifth straight win as he moved
closer to snaring the individual gold in the
wheelchair/ambulant division at the Suranaree University
of Technology campus.
A point
behind was RP’s Henry Lopez, who trounced Malaysia’s Ho
Hea, while another Filipino, Alexis Elinon, downed
countryman Joven Mailig to share third place with
Indonesia’s Taufiq Hidayat on 3.5 points.
Barring
any major disaster in the last two round, the
Philippines is virtually assured of the individual gold
medals in the individual and team events.
The
Philippines also continued to lead the team event in the
visually impaired section despite Rudy Sarmiento’s
defeat to Indonesian Edy Suryanto.
Suryanto
now has 5.0 points, a point ahead of RP’s Francis Ching,
who slammed Singapore’s Thomas Yong.
Sarmiento, Ching and Abraham Peligro, who halved the
point with Malaysia’s Derani Ghani M., however, are
leading the team event after amassing 10.5 points, 2.5
points clear of the Indonesians and the Malaysians.
Jerico
Openia, a double gold-medal winner in Manila, was still
without one as he could only cop a silver medal in
shotput F56 class with a throw of 8.18 meters. Para
Games holder Trinh Cong Luan booked the gold in 9.77
meters.
Ruth
Maragrag bagged her second silver in the 200 meters T53
class in 36.71 seconds, a shadow behind Veitnamese
Nguyen Thi Than Thao’s 36.15.
Enano
Paz, who snared the 100m T54 class gold Monday, failed
to make it a sprint double after she ended up with a
bronze in the 200, losing steam in the down-to-the-wire
finish the Vietnam duo of Nguyen Thi Xuan Anh and Hoang
Hong Kien.
Earlier,
Austin Kitan lifted 137.5 kgs to settle for a bronze in
the 56-kg weight class, the second power lifting medal
for RP following Achelle Guion’s silver in women’s 40
kgs Monday at the Kebkanjana Hall. |
