Musclemen win two with perfect 10

The Philippines finally ended its 14-year gold medal drought in bodybuilding behind Michael Borenaga and Alfredo "Jojo" Trazona in yesterday’s bodybuilding competitions at the GSIS Theater.

Both garnered a perfect 10 in the two-round competition as they wowed the judges with their excellent free posing routines. Borenaga copped the 65-kg. crown while Trazona got his gold in the 75-kg. division.

It was Borenaga’s first SEA Games stint. Sazali bin Abd Samad of Malaysia and Thailand’s Thongpan Lammana got the silver and bronze in the bantam category.

"I’m very happy. I wasn’t really surprised because I prepared well for this," said Borenaga, a native of Aklan.

Trazona, on the other hand, moved down to the welterweight class following his bronze medal stint in the light middleweight class of the Vietnam SEA Games two years back.

"It wasn’t easy, because my light middleweight rivals also moved down to welterweight. I’m very happy I got my first gold medal after all the sacrifices and dieting to trim down," said Trazona who ruled over silver medalist Giap Tri Dung of Vietnam and bronze winner Panupong Prapteep of Thailand.

It was a close fight for the overall title as Singapore and the Philippines both ended with two golds. But Singapore claimed the overall championship in bodybuilding via the bronze-medal feat of Vincent Ng Han Cheng.

Thailand and Vietnam shared third place overall with a tally of one gold, one silver and two bronze apiece.

Winning the other categories were Vietnam’s Pham Van Mach, Singapore’s Ibrahim Bin Sihat and Simon Chua Ling Fung, and Thailand’s Sitthi Charoenrith.

Mach earned a score of 10 to beat Zaw Wan of Myanmar for the light flyweight gold while Singapore’s Vincent Ng Han Cheng took third place.

Sihat also garnered a perfect 10 from the judges with Malaysian Somsri Turinthaisong and Indonesian Asrelawandi trailing behind with 25 and 29 points each for the silver and bronze in the flyweight category.

Fung delivered the second gold for Singapore, besting runner-up Aung Khaing Win of Myanmar and third placer Cao Quoc Phu of Vietnam in the lightweight division.

The crowd expected Vietnam’s Ly Duc to claim the light middleweight plum. But Charoenrith stood out in the final round to bag the gold over Min Zaw Oo of Myanmar as Ly only settled for third. — Bong Castro