Rock climber captures Phl's lone gold

PALEMBANG, Indonesia – Rock climbing enthusiast Elaina Kristine Apelo Flores became the new champion in a sport introduced for the first time and produced the only gold for an embattled Philippine camp on Day 3 of the 26th Southeast Asian Games yesterday here.

The 31-year-old Flores made three total tops in all three attempts and earned the highest bonus of four points to finish tied for first with Thai Watchareewan Thomas.

She won in the tiebreak to win the first gold in women’s bouldering, a form of extreme gymnastic rock climbing that made it to the SEAG calendar for the first time.

Chung Sue Ann of Singapore took six attempts to make the three required total tops and got the bronze in the six-player finals, which started with a field of nine players.

Flores’ victory was the only feat that glittered as other members of Team Philippines failed to snatch the elusive gold against tough opposition in athletics, diving and swimming.

Results from the Philippine secretariat indicated that Henry Dagmil settled for the silver in the long jump although it failed to give other details.

Long time partners Jaime Asok and Rexel Ryan Fabriga earned the silver in the 10 meter synchronized platform diving with a score of 344.51, just a few points behind the gold-winning 378.12 points of Indonesians Muhammad Nasrullah and Luthfi Niko Abdill.

Sheila Mae Perez and Ceseil Domenios teamed up for the first time and gained the bronze in the 3m synchronized springboard diving won by the pairs from Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Filipina pair scored 243.l2 points behind the 296.10 of Malaysia’s Leong Mun Yee and Ng Yan Yee and the 250.20 of Indonesia’s Dewi Setnatyingshi and Natalie Dinda.

Swimming immediately ended its medal drought, thanks to the silver medal finish of Dorothy Grace Hong in the 200m backstroke and Jessie Lacuna in the 200m freestyle.

Karatedo also put in three bronze medals to complete the Philippines’ tally of 5-5-12 gold-silver-bronze medals from seven sports.

The Philippines didn’t get major breakthrough in hostilities in the Indon capital, settling for five bronzes in taekwondo and karatedo.

The jins slowed down after a two-gold harvest Saturday with Samuel Morisson and Karla Jane Avala failing to make it past the semis in under-68kg and under-57kg categories, respectively.

In karatedo, Mae Soriano (55kg), Jayson Macaalay (60kg) and Ronnel Balingit (84kg) couldn’t do better.