Singapore makes big splash; RP sinks

LOS BANOS, Laguna — Instead of a golden harvest, RP got a big fat egg.

Swept by the Singaporean tidal wave, the Philippines found itself blanked in the absence of local hero Miguel Molina after Day 3 in swimming of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games at the Trace Aquatics Center here.

The unsinkable Singaporeans took five of the eight gold medals in the day. Joscelin Yeo and former Chinese national Tao Li highlighted the Singaporean assault with record-breaking victories, hiking their total to nine.

Coming into Day 3 expecting to take home a medal, James Walsh, Erica Totten, Miguel Mendoza and Lizza Danila failed to live up to expectations and suffered stinging defeats in their respective events.

Molina, the source of the host country’s two-gold haul with wins in the 400-m and 200-m individual medley, competed only in one event, the 4x100-m freestyle relay team, which finished fourth before a bitterly disappointed home crowd.

The 24-year-old Yeo, the best female athlete in the 2003 Hanoi Games, ruled the 100-m butterfly in 59.91 seconds to become the biennial meet’s first quadruple gold medalist while smashing the old record of 1:00.44 she herself registered in the 1999 Brunei SEAG.

Moe Thu Aung of Myanmar finished second in 1:00.87 and Tao third in 1:01.53.

Tao, who took the 200-m backstroke gold Wednesday clocked 1:03.83 to smash the 100-m backstroke mark of 1:03.93 established by Chonlathorn Vorathamrong of Thailand in Kuala Lumpur.

But it was Lionel Lee Jian Yow who set the tone for the Singaporeans as he swam his way to the 400-m freestyle gold in 4:00.51, besting Indonesian Akbar Nasution (4:00.57) and Thai Charnvudth Saengsri (4:05.40).

Capping Singapore’s splurge was its 4x100-m freestyle medley relay team, which snared the gold in 3:27.56.

While Singapore was in celebration, the RP side was in mourning.

Walsh, a 2004 Athens Olympics veteran, came close to booking a bronze but finished only fourth in 56.33 seconds in the 100-m butterfly won by Malaysian Bego Daniel in 55.83. Donny Utomo of Indonesia cornered the silver medal in 56.17 while Daniel’s countryman Alex Lim Keng Liat took the bronze.

Lim earlier emerged victorious in the 100-m backstroke in 56.97 for the Malaysians’ second golden swim of the day. He defeated No. 2 Mark Chay Jung Jun of Singapore (58.49) and Suriya Suksuphak of Thailand (58.76).

Mendoza, 22, finished fifth in the 400-m freestyle where he was a silver medalist in Vietnam. Countryman Ryan Arabejo of University of the Philippines finished seventh in 4:06.26.

Danila, 23, also finished fifth in the 100-m backstroke in an unforgetable experience that buried deep the happy memories of her silver medal finish in Hanoi.

But the San Pablo City native had her chances.

Egged on by a huge crowd at this P60-million venue, Danila swam her way to the lead approaching the 50-meter turn but she lost momentum and finished fifth in 1:06.56.

Totten, for her part, was worse as she failed to make the cut in the time trials of the 100-m butterfly the day she celebrated her 17th birthday.

Trained in the prestigious Bolles Swimming School in Florida, Totten finished ninth in the trials in 1:05.31, a breath of a second behind countryman Luica Dacanay, who clocked 1:05.29 to book the eighth and last finals berth.

Totten, who was part of the 4x200-m and 4x100-m freestyle relay bronze medal teams here, made it to the RP squad after shattering three RP records including this event.

Malaysian Chui Lai Kwan took the silver in 1:05.27 while Vorathamron, the gold medal winner in Hanoi, settled for a silver medal in 1:05.28.

Putting salt to RP’s wounds was its 4x100-m freestyle relay team of double gold medallist Miguel Molina, Ronald Guiriba, Walsh and Kendrick Uy, who finished fourth in 3:31.18.

Indonesia took one gold courtesy of Magdalena Susanto in the 800-m freestyle with a time of 8:59.13.

Singapore’s Quah Ting Wen was second in 9:02.20 while Thailand’s Nimitta Thaveesupsoonthorn third in 9:00.34.

At the end of the day, Singapore continued to lead the pack with a nine-gold, six-silver and six-bronze medal haul while Thailand remained at second with 4-8-6.

From second, RP fell to fourth with a stagnant 2-0-4 behind Malaysia’s 3-3-1 and Indonesia’s 2-4-2. Vietnam is at sixth with one gold medal and Myanmar seventh with 0-1-1. Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Timor Leste were still without a medal.