Filipinos unfazed, bag 5 more golds

After a three-day splurge, Team Philippines slowed down a bit yesterday but remained safely ahead of a hungry pack with only four days left in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games.

Five gold medals were safely in their hands as of 8 p.m. with a few more competitions going on elsewhere. Filipino athletes have won five, 20, 16 and 17 gold medals over the previous four days, respectively.

The gold haul on the first day of December gave the Filipinos a total of 63 gold, 41 silver and 49 bronze medals halfway through the SEA Games, which come to a close on Monday.

There were only 40 gold medals disputed yesterday. And fortunately for the Philippines, fierce rivals Vietnam and Thailand failed to dominate the action, hardly making a dent in the total medals won by the hosts.

Vietnam, as of presstime, also had four golds to show for a second-running total of 43-39-48 while Thailand, still looking to land the big punch, bagged another four for a total of 34-36-53 to place third overall.

It seemed that Thailand, nine times the overall champion in the SEA Games, had landed a crushing blow the other day when Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reportedly questioned the conduct of officiating at the Games.

But this charge was parried not only by the Philippines but the entire SEA Games Federation, whose members met yesterday afternoon and found no solid basis for the accusations.

Chief organizer Jose "Peping" Cojuangco wrote President Arroyo a letter yesterday, assuring her that "all events are officiated in a very transparent manner."

Thailand will have to find other or better ways to catch up to Vietnam, the reigning overall champion, even before it could think of dislodging the Philippines from first place.

The next two days will be the lull before the storm. On Sunday, the penultimate day of the Games, a record 100 gold medals (unless event changes are made) will be up for grabs.

It’s the first time in SEA Games history that as many gold medals will be disputed on a single day, and this year’s overall champion should have been decided by the time most people have gone to bed.

Delivering gold for the Philippines on this day were gymnast Roel Ramirez who won two; the lightweight sculling pair of Alvin Amposta and Benjie Tolentino in rowing; Helen Dawa in judo; and the foil team of Ermerson Segui, Rolando Canlas Jr., Ramil Endriano and Mark Atienza in fencing. The 23-year-old Ramirez ruled the vault event with an average score of 9.2000 then passed through the eye of the needle to win the gold in the floor exercise. Actually, the native of Calamba, Laguna ended up tied with two others, Shu Wai Ng of Malaysia and Aldilla Akbar of Indonesia, who had a score of 8.450. They were each awarded the gold — believed to be a first in the SEA Games.

The Philippines had a bad day in swimming with all four swimmers — Miguel Mendoza, Ryan Arabejo, Lizza Danila and James Walsh — failing to touch their respective pads for a medal.

Mendoza finished fifth and Arabejo seventh in the men’s 400-meter freestyle; Danila also placed fifth in the 100-meter backstroke; and Walsh, a Filipino-American recruit, was fourth in the 100-meter butterfly.

Regarding the controversial accusations from Thailand, Cojuangco said the referees, umpires, judges and other officials charged with the conduct of the games and events come from an international pool. "No official judges in a game in which his or her own country is participating. In conclusion, we hope that this unfortunate incident can be finally put to rest so that our national athletes can enjoy the full credits of their legitimate success in various fronts of the Southeast Asian Games," he added.