TEAM University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP)-Philippines snatched another gold medal courtesy of Ateneo swimming sensation Hannah Dato on the penultimate day of the 17th Asean University Games on Saturday in Palembang, Indonesia.
Dato, the Season 77 swimming Most Valuable Player, emerged as the country’s best performer in the meet after winning her third gold medal in the women’s 200-meter individual medley.
A former Palarong Pambansa standout, Dato clocked a two minutes and 21.13 seconds to beat Malaysia’s Cai Lin, who settled for the silver with 2:22.21. Ressa Dewi of Indonesia took the bronze with 2:22.73.
Entering the final day of competitions, the Filipino student athletes were still in fifth place with 10 gold, 10 silver and 18 bronze medals, assuring of the country’s best finish in the biennial meet in six years.
Team UAAP-Philippines also bagged two bronze medals courtesy of Ateneo’s Jessie Khing Lacuna in the men’s 200-meter individual medley and the women’s 4×100 meter medley relay team of Datu and her Ateneo teammates Ariana Herranz and Roanne Yu and University of the Philippines’s Denjylie Cordero.
Host Indonesia continued to lord it over in the medal tally with a 57-68-43 (gold-silver-bronze) haul, followed by Thailand (50-31-20), Malaysia (32-35-46) and Vietnam (24-14-2).
Team UAAP-Philippines scooped four golds in swimming and taekwondo and two from athletics. The Filipinos also won medals in women’s volleyball and diving.