RP bets bag two golds in Vietnam Para Games

The Philippines bagged two gold, 15 silver, and 23 bronze medals in the just-concluded second Para Games held in Hanoi, Vietnam Dec. 21-27.

Differently-abled powerlifter Adeline Dumapong Ancheta ruled the women’s over-75kgs. surpassing her RP record of 105kgs. with a lift of 107.5kgs. She beat Malaysia’s Sharifah Raudah Syed Akil who only managed a 77.5kg lift.

Josephine Medina won a gold and two silver medals in table tennis. She dominated the women’s individual standing class, humbling An Nguyen Quynh of Vietnam, 3-0. Medina and Clarita Isidro, however, only settled for the silvers in the doubles and team events as their Vietnamese counterparts, who trained together for years, were more fluid and were just too much for the duo who played together only for three weeks. Isidro also salvaged the bronze medal in the women’s individual event.

Trackster Africita Salazar pocketed four silvers. She was second best in the 100m, 200m, 400m dash T53 class and led the women’s 4x100-meter relay team to win the silver along with Ruth Maragrag, Rosielyn Ocampo and Cherrylyn Dela Cruz.

Blind track and field player Gerardo Gonzalo, who is married to former broadcaster/actress Pia Pilapil, failed in his quest for a medal in the 100 and 200 meters as the Thais, Vietnamese and Myanmar sprinters dominated the field. Gonzalo, however, bagged the silver in the men’s shot put F11 category.

In the swimming competitions, Eric Villanueva took the silver in the 200m backstroke S10 division while Resty Tagorda finished second in the 100m freestyle S7 class.

The country’s other bronze medal winners were Rosielyn Ocampo, Purification Mingarine, Resty Tagorda, Agustine Kitan, Baby Boy Lunag, Achelle Guion, Jonas Matados, Emily Villaver, Henry Tuyay, Pablo Catalan, Joel Balatucan, Andy Avellana, Jerico Openia, Juanito Mingarine, Criz Ramirez, Fortune Tirona, Rosalie Terrefiel, Roderic Canta, Anne Grace Abeto and Domingo Hablan.

Thailand completely dominated the games, harvesting a total of 101 golds, 62 silvers and 31 bronzes. Host Vietnam was far second with 81-78-85 followed by dethroned overall champion Malaysia with 54-39-48.

Myanmar finished fourth overall (24-13-12) followed by Indonesia (10-11-18). Sixth place Singapore had 10-8-1 followed by Brunei with 3-10-4. The Philippines was in eighth place, Cambodia ninth (1-5-3) followed by Laos with three silver medals and a bronze, and East Timor with one bronze medal.

Head of delegation PSC commissioner Mike Barredo said he was satisfied with the performance of the 45-man RP Para athletes as they were able to produce 40 medals even if they trained for only three months for the games.