SEAG postscript: Fin swimmer won 2 medals

MANILA, Philippines - Wrong encoding of results and names had resulted in a number of errors during media coverage of the 26th Southeast Asian Games in Palembang and Jakarta in Indonesia.

A parent called up The Philippine STAR to call its attention to the lone gold medal winner in the fin swimming competitions at the aquatic center of the Jakabaring Sriwijaya Sports Center in Palembang.

The name should have been Danielle Faith Torres, not Sanglap Flores as reported by the Philippine Olympic Committee secretariat disseminating the results in Jakarta. From an entry in the website The STAR inadvertently referred to the 14-year-old swimmer, from Palawan Hope Christian School (not Palawan National School), as Danielle Faith Santos.

Danielle Faith won the 50m surface event in 20.48 second, not in 22 seconds. The SEAG record is 19 seconds.

The SEAG website, www.seag.2011, which is the official information hub of the Indonesian SEA Games, also credited a Vietnamese with the silver medal in the 100m surface event instead of Torres.

Thus, Torres should be credited with one gold, in the 50m surface, and a silver, in the 100m surface events. The men’s 4x100m relay team also won the bronze, giving the debuting national fin swimming team a final, official tally of 1-1-1 gold-silver-bronze medals.

In a transmission by the POC secretariat, the mixed pair of Denise Dy and Conrad Treat Huey lost to an Indonesian pair in the finals. The corrected entry gives the gold to the Filipino team.

In softball, the website showed Thailand defeated the Philippines, 6-0, in the finals. It was the opposite.

A wushu official went to the Main Press Center to complain about the omission of a Filipino, who should have been the silver medalist instead of an Indonesian.

In bridge, the gold medal win by the Philippines stayed in the website for two days before it was corrected by the organizers. The Philippines should, instead, have won the silver and Thailand the gold.

Delays in transmission, wrong schedules and error in judges’ decision have also thrown confusion into the games, but, as they say, all’s well that ends well.