August 23, 2008 | 12:00am
In the battle for Southeast Asian supremacy the Philippines was 0-0-0 in the leaderboard with Indonesia the winner with one gold, one silver and three bronze medals followed by Thailand with 1-1-0 and Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore with 0-1-0 each.
Indonesia showed its class in badminton, winning the gold in the men’s doubles through Markis Kido and Hendra Sitiawan, the silver in mixed doubles through Setiawan and Nova Widianto Liliyana, and the bronze through Maria Kristin Yulianti.
It also won the bronze in weightlifting (men’s 56kg and 62kg).
Thailand won the gold in weightlifting through Jaroenrattanatarakoon in the women’s 53 kg, and in the –49 kg in taekwondo through Butree Puedpong. Chutchawal Kahwlaor missed the bronze in the –58 kg in men’s taekwondo, losing to Chu Mu yen of Chinese Taipei in the repechage. Tshomlee Go failed to go beyond the first round.
Vietnam also made an impression in weightlifting, gaining the silver through Hoang Anhy Tuan in the men’s 56kg.
Singapore also had a silver in table tennis, courtesy of the women’s team of Tianwei Feng, Jia Wei Li, and Yue Gu Wang.
Malaysia’s silver came from Lee Chong Wei in the badminton men’s singles.
It is the other way around. The father of Toni Rivero is an engineer, while Tshomlee’s father runs a taekwondo gym in the West Coast…
Tina Morgan, Australia’s taekwondo jin in the same welterweight class as Toni Rivero, said after losing to Karine Sergerie of Canada: “I thought I had done enough when I hit her chest and it made a pop. I thought I scored a few times which didn’t register in the third round.”
She had the patella (kneecap) of a deceased donor transplanted into her knee in 2007 in a bid to qualify for the 2008 Olympics. After injuring her knee in Germany, she required a knee reconstruction. In an effort to return as soon as possible, a surgeon used part of her own hamstring, and the donated tissue, to rebuild the tissue.
“I wake up everyday and think about my knee. Sometimes I kiss it just to say thanks,” she said.
