RP, Vietnam in tight battle for 4th place

KUALA LUMPUR (Via Globe Telecoms) — The indigenous sport of pencak silat, the national pastime of tribal warriors in many parts of Southeast Asia, knocked down the Philippines, giving Vietnam five gold medals that all but assured its fourth place overall in the 21st Southeast Asian Games here yesterday.

The pencak silat exponents from Vietnam underscored their superiority over their rivals from the neighboring countries of Malaysia and Indonesia to earn five gold medals, and a Vietnamese amazon ruled the 69.5 km massed start in cycling to give Vietnam a gold-silver-bronze medal tally of 33-34-61 on the penultimate day of competitions.

The Philippines had 29-63-67, its two new gold medals coming from two marathoners early in the day.

Still, the Filipinos were confident they could get the gold in the men’s basketball event and the billiards finals which were ongoing at presstime and were hoping to bag probably two more in the judo finals to match the 33-gold medal output of the Vietnamese.

If that happens, the Philippines would win on a higher number of silver medals.

Two Filipino boxers’ loss in the boxing finals and Arnel Querimit’s fourth place finish in the 180km massed start in cycling cast a big blow on the gold-medal campaign of the Philippine contingent which was not expecting gold medals from its entries in synchronized diving (fourth), synchronized swimming, equestrian and rhythmic gymnastics.

The Philippines finished with the silver in the women’s pairs in lawn bowls, a sport new to Filipinos, and settled for the bronze in women’s volleyball after the Filipinas lost to the Vietnamese in the crossover semifinals the other night.

Despite the impending defeat to the Vietnamese, Philippine sports leaders commended the Filipino athletes for their performance in the biennial competitions.

First Gentleman Juan Miguel Arroyo congratulated athletics chief Go Teng Kok for his athletes’ eight-gold medal production in track and field, the winningest sport of the Philippine contingent.

"There’s a little difference between silver and gold," said Tuason. "The fact that we have won a large number of silvers means that the Filipinos have performed well in the games."

He said countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore fell short of their projections because Malaysia and Thailand went all out to win the gold in various sports, hinting of biased officiating in many sports like boxing and gymnastics where judgment determined the winners. The proverbial homecourt advantage also benefited the hosts.

He pledged to revive the Atleta Program when the contingent goes back to the country to rally the private sector to support the sport program of the government.

"But first, we must have unity among the NSAs before we can convince the private sector to give its support," he said.

"With the support of the government, the First Couple and the private sector, we can achieve better next time," he said.