KUALA LUMPUR—The vaunted triathlon squad delivered a fitting birthday gift to chief of mission Cynthia Carrion with a sweep of the gold medals on Monday in the 29th Southeast Asian Games at the
Water Sports Complex in Putrajaya City.
Nikko Huelgas and Kim Mangrobang booked masterful performances in the men’s and women’s events to provide a ray of hope for a country that remains hunting for 47 more gold medals to achieve its goal in these Games.
Huelgas retained his title from Singapore in 2015 with a clocking of one hour, 59 minutes and 21 seconds. John Chicano made it sweeter by clinching the silver medal with a time of 2:01:26.
So dominant were the Filipinos that Singapore’s Clement Chow came in with a time of 2:03:34 to settle for the bronze medal.
Mangrobang won in 2:11:14, with Adorna coming in some eight seconds later with a time of 2:18:58.
The Filipinas were a cut above the field. Malaysia’s Irene Chong was some six minutes off at 2:25:44 to complete the podium.
It took one gutsy performance from Huelgas and excellent teamwork from Mangrobang and Adorna to essay the golden sweep.
After lagging behind Singaporean Clement Chow in the 1.5-kilometer swim on a picturesque man-made lake, Huelgas caught fire and regained his bearing in the bike category before pedalling with Chicano at the start of the second loop.
Mangrobang and Adorna displayed the same quality of teamwork that removed hometown bet Irene Wong from the gold-medal equation.
“It’s okay that I lost the gold,” said Adorna, who ran alongside Mangrobang up to transition two before suffering cramps that prompted her to give her teammate the go-signal to zoom to victory.
“It doesn’t matter who would win. The important thing is that we keep the gold and silver medals and this victory is for the country. We had a very good strategy and we played perfectly as a team,” Adorna added.
Adorna and Mangrobang were 1-2 in Singapore 2015.
“I was so happy with their performance. These triathletes made my day truly special,” said the blushing Carrion shortly after being serenaded with a birthday song by members of the SEA Games secretariat, Philippine Sports Commission employees and the media.
Filipinos clinched medals in other fronts, but not a shining gold.
The gold continued to elude Filipino archers as they settled for two bronze medals in men’s and women’s team recurve.
Florante Matan, Gabriel Moreno and Mark Javier had the misfortune of drawing hometown favorite Malaysia in the semifinals and were completely outclassed, 0-6 (54-57, 53-58, 49-52). The Malaysians beat the Thais, 6-0, for the gold medal.
The Filipinos vented their ire on the Vietnamese, 6-0 (50-49, 55-54, 54-53), in securing the bronze.
It was same story for Nicole Marie Tagle, Mary Queen Ybanez and Kareel Meer Hongitan, who were ambushed by Indonesia, 2-6 (50-52. 55-54, 54-56, 52-55), in the semifinals.
They shut out Vietnam, 6-0 (51-44, 50-47, 55-47), for the bronze.
The last hope for gold now rests on the shoulders of 2015 women’s recurve silver medalist Ortega and Matan, who will be partnering in mixed doubles event on Tuesday to cap the archery hostilities.
Also making the podium for Team Philippines was the sepak takraw squad of Rizalyn Amolacion, Mary Ann Lopez, Jean Marie Sucalit, Kristel Karloman and Lhaina Lhiell Mangubat, which dominated Indonesia to claim the bronze medal in women’s regu.
It was the sepak takraw team’s second medal, in the biennial meet after its men’s team delivered a silver in the chinlone event in last week.
Save for the triathletes, archers and sepak takraw aces, the national fencers and a young wushu artist also delivered.
Samantha Catantan bagged a silver medal while Maxine Esteban ran away with a bronze in women’s individual foil of fencing.
In wushu, Agatha Wong scored 9.65 points to punch a silver medal in women’s optional taijian.
The Philippines climbed a notch higher to sixth place on the medal tally board with three gold, six silver and six bronze medals.
Malaysia remained on target at dominating the Games with 21 gold, 18 silver and 15 bronze medals, while Singapore was a far second with nine gold, 10 silver and eight bronze medals, followed by Thailand 6-6-7 (gold-silver-bronze), Vietnam 6-4-5 and Indonesia 5-7-13
Myanmar was seventh with 3-2-1 while the rest of the field have yet to win a gold medal.