Hurdler, archers deliver for Phl

NAY PYI TAW – A 400m hurdler and the compound team in archery provided brief moments of glory, while the lady golfers all but sealed two more golds for Team Philippines still nursing slim hopes of improving on its seventh place in the halfway stage of the 27th Southeast Asian Games here yesterday.

Fil-American Shawn Cray won the gold in the 400m hurdles, while the compound team took the gold a different Philippine team won in 2011 in a pair of golden efforts that raised the Philippines gold-silver-bronze medal tally to 14-20-24 after seven days of action in various venues.

Thailand was already up front with 64-55-54, while Vietnam was second with 47-41-52, Indonesia third with 44-56-55, Myanmar fourth with 42-39-46, Malaysia fifth with 27-25-46 and Singapore sixth with 22-20-31.

Young Princess Superal fired the day’s best six-under-par 66 and took a six-shot lead over Myanmar’s Yin May Myo while towing the Phl team to a seven-stroke lead in team play going into today’s final events.

That’s two golds in the bag for the golf team, which all but kissed its medal hopes in the men’s competition where best–placed Filipino Rupert Zaragosa lay 12 shots off the pace and the team was running sixth among seven teams, 33 shots behind Thailand.

Muay thai saw Philip Delarmino knocking out Malaysian Muhammad Sikri and then breezing through to the finals after the Indonesian team backed out, including what would have been his semis foe.

Dennis Orcollo and Carlo Biado also advanced in 10-ball singles, each gunning for a medal today.

Diego Virata and Camila Lastrilla also advanced in equestrian’s individual showjumping, although their team and Andrea Sophia Belofsky did not.

Judo and taekwondo also start today with the latter bannered by former world champion men’s and women’s poomsae teams and the former by 17-year-old Fil-Japanese Miyoki Watanabe and Nancy Quillotes Lucero.

Meanwhile, the world-renowned women’s poomsae artists display their class in a fierce duel for the gold with Vietnam in the form event of the Southeast Asian Games taekwondo competitions tomorrow at the Wunna Theikdi taekwondo indoor stadium.

Ranni Ann Ortega, Ma. Clarice Lagman will be joined by new recruit 16-year-old Rinna Babanto in their quest for the gold in women’s poomsae, one of three events the  men’s and women’s teams are competing in the five-event competitions.

“I’m confident because this team just came from the World Cup. There, we were able to study our opponents,” said national women’s coach Igor Mella.

“We also studied our weaknesses and tried to correct them, and I also see our strengths which we continue  to improve on.  So this should give us a great fighting chance for the gold,” he added.

Mella said that since their World Championship stint in Bali, Indonesia last October, they continued to improve on their choreographed presentation. They regularly did six to eight hours of training on the second floor of the taekwondo national headquarters at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.