Fighting Fifth

VIENTIANE, Laos – Team Philippines breaks camp today as it heads back to Manila carrying a bag of 38 gold medals and stories of heroism from the men and women of Philippine sports at the close of the 11-nation,10-day Southeast Asian Games.

After all the squabbles that divided Philippine sports and derailed preparations for the Games, all’s well that ends well as the 253-member athletic contingent achieved its gold medal target, which placed it at fifth overall, just two behind Malaysia and five shy of Indonesia but way behind Thailand (85) and Vietnam (81).

The Philippines finished with a 38-35-51 (gold-silver-bronze) output while Malaysia had 40-40-59 for fourth.

Thailand completed its romp with 86-83-97, edging Vietnam (83-75-57) for the overall championship in the biennial event.

Indonesia was a distant third with 43-53-74.

Of the 22 sports represented here, the Philippines won gold medals in 14 while eight were either medal-less or gained the silver or the consolation bronze.

Athletics was a big winner with seven gold medals although the team finished only fourth overall behind Thailand (14), Indonesia and Vietnam (7). The other major contributors were boxing with five, taekwondo and swimming with four, and billiards and wrestling with three.

The two-gold medal winners were judo, wushu, tennis and golf while archery, muay thai, karatedo and shooting had one each.

Weightlifting which lost Hidylin Diaz to injury before the Games, had no gold to show along with perennial losers pencak selat, sepak takraw, table tennis and petanque.

Diving failed to win a gold this time and aquatic sports president Mark Joseph was quick to point at judging that denied two-time gold medalist Sheila Mae Perez the top medal in the 3m springboard and the pair of Jaime Asok and Ryan Fabriga in the 10m springboard synchronized diving.

Billiards was expected to win six, but got only three – two from 2005 SEA Games gold medalist Rubilen Amit and one from world champion Ronnie Alcano. The rest of the elite field, considered the best in the world, were not up to par on SEA Games level. Out in the pre-finals were Alex Pagulayan, Carlo Biado and Roberto Gomez in snooker, Efren “Bata” Reyes and Django Bustamante in the 8-Ball doubles, Gandy Valle and Dennis Orcollo in 9-Ball, Rodolfo Luat in carom, Rey Gandia in 8-Ball singles and Ramil Gallego.

If it’s any consolation, the billiards team won the overall honors with 3-1-2, beating Vietnam (3-1-0), Singapore (2-1-2) and Thailand (2-6-3).

Athletics is the winningest sport with seven gold medals, all in the field events and the long distance runs, out of 45 events at stake. The athletics program of Go Teng Kok has yet to include the short distances as well as the relays in track events, which Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia continue to dominate.

Archery missed the stint of best bet Amaya Paz, a victim of Storm Ondoy, but Jennifer Chan, 44, picked up the challenge to salvage one gold for archery. Olympian Mark Javier was off mark and dropped out of the first round in the recurve event, but Earl Benjamin Yap survived in the 70m compound up to the semifinals where his trip to the gold medal round was cut short by a Vietnamese. He won the bronze.

The boxers, trained under a new management team with the heart, technical and financial resources to run a costly program leading to the Olympics, had five golds in 10 events, a feat that revived hopes of a gold medal chance for the Philippines in the London Olympics.

Taekwondo is one association that wasn’t besieged by internal strife, and the solidarity of the team showed in the final output – 4-4-4 (gold-silver-bronze) – with Olympians Tshomlee Go and Mary Antonette Rivero showing their dominance anew.

Wushu was once the gold mine of the Philippines but the Vietnamese and Thais have worked overtime to surpass the Philippines with a program that includes training in China. The wushu federation is still in a shambles with its leadership unresolved, but a quiet wushu lover from the Cordilleras named Tony Candelaria presented a tough Baguio unit led by URCC combatant Mark Eddiva and Mariane Mariano to win two golds.

The ageless John Baylon, 45, made sure judo would not get shut out after the association ran out of talents in a sport which is more prone to injuries than any other. The national judokas did not even have the luxury of sparring sessions because the other members of the national pool – who did not win the gold and silver in 2007 – were all gone.

 Baylon, the Japan-trained eighth-time SEA Games gold medalist, made it nine in a row with a golden performance he wants to keep up in the SEAG as long as his grips and heart don’t fail him. He defeated an 18-year-old young enough to be his son.

Tennis came here crossing its fingers on its chances of winning the gold against the tough Thais led by Danai Odomchoke. But the Fil-Americans did it again. Cecil Mamiit and Treat Huey combined to win the doubles in a gripping contest that lasted till near midnight. The two clashed again yesterday, this time in the men’s singles finals, won by the Mamiit over this young fellow Davis Cupper.

The golf team was expected to win the women’s individual and team gold because of a trio of tough teenage golfers in Chihiro Ikeda, Dottie Ardina, and Mia Piccio, winners of major jungolf tournaments in the US, Hong Kong and elsewhere, trained by renowned coach Bong Lopez, and supported by generous sponsor International Container Terminal Services, Inc.

They did it with aplomb. They came from one shot down to win the team gold, and Ikeda outfought her Thai rival in the playoff to win the individual crown.

There were other heart-warming stories. Tac Padilla, 45, the only Filipino to complete in 16 SEA Games, knew he is past his prime. He volunteered to train young shooters who would someday take over from the aging shooters, and one of them was his daughter Nicole, 18. Tac made the parting shot in the Games with a golden win in the 25m rapid fire pistol for his third gold after the 1979 and 1993 Games.

Miguel Molina, who warmed the hearts of Filipinos with an all-around performance that made him the most outstanding athlete in the 2005 and 2007 SEAG, was back in action, and his win in his favorite events – 200IM, and 400IM – only showed the big fighting heart of a 25-year-old US graduate who earlier won only the silver and failed to qualify in another event in the Asian Indoor Championships.

Nobody cared about wrestling and muay thai before the Games. Wrestlers Margarito Angana, Jimmy Angana and Jason Balabal roughed up their opponents and announced their presence while Zaidi Laruan etched his name in the new sport of muay thai.