Pinoys breach 70-gold mark Team Philippine stays safely ahead halfway through 12-day conclave

MANILA, Philippines — Team Philippines defied the “obstacle course” for the second time in three days and claimed two more golds to complete a rare sweep of a Southeast Asian Games event, with five other sports delivering as the hosts breached the 70-gold mark in Day 6 of the 30th edition of the Games in various venues in Tagaytay, Tarlac, Pampanga and Subic.

The squash mixed team of Jemyca Aribado, Andrew Garcia and Reymark Begornia smothered its rivals from Singapore and came away with a 3-0 triumph at the Manlia Polo Club late in the night to make it a seven-gold effort aided by victories in women’s marathon (Christine Hallasgo), women’s individual golf (Bianca Pagdanganan), modern pentathlon (Michael Comaling) and judo (Maria Takahashi).

With a seven-gold haul in Day 6, Team Phl stayed safely ahead halfway through the 12-day meet with a 72-55-50 (gold-silver-bronze) tally with Indonesia keeping the momentum of its Day 5 roll to grab second with a 40-41-47 output behind a day-best 13-gold production.

Vietnam, which hounded the Phl in the first five days, slipped to third with a 38-41-52 mark followed by Singapore (32-22-36), defending champion Malaysia (28-20-29), Thailand (23-36-43), Myanmar (2-10-24), Cambodia (2-4-17), Brunei (1-5-5) and Laos (0-3-12) with Timor Leste still without a medal.

Earlier, Mervin Guarte and Sherwin Managil posted a 1-2 finish in the culminating individual 5k X 20 Obstacle men’s final to seal the hosts’ perfect six-of-six feat in one of the Games’ new events which debuted Wednesday that had the Filipinos sweeping the mixed team assist and relay and the individual 100m X 10 categories for men’s and women.

So overpowering were the Pinoys in the four-nation field that Menchi Abahan and Glorien Merisco also completed a 1-2 feat in women’s 5k X 20 Obstacle earlier in a rather quiet day that actually started out with a similar gold-silver exploit by the hosts in Capas, Tarlac.

But though marathon produced an expected gold, the victor was unexpected as SEAG rookie Hallasgo pulled off a surprise win over Olympian and defending champion Mary Joy Tabal in the women’s side of the 42km event at the New Clark City.

“It’s amazing, I can’t believe it,” said Hallasgo a native of Malaybalay town in Bukidnon. “I didn’t expect to win but I prepared hard for this and conditioned myself so I could keep up.”

The Indonesians struck in beach volley, judo, sambo, canoe, kayak and modern pentathlon while Vietnam also posted victories in canoe, judo and fencing to keep their bids going heading to the crucial phase of the competitions with 62 golds up for grabs today.

Day 8 stakes the most number of gold medals at 91 while 80 golds will be disputed on Dec. 9.

Over at Luisita, also in Tarlac, the LPGA Tour-bound Pagdanganan capped a checkered amateur career by winning the women’s individual gold, repulsing Thai Kan Bunnabodee with a closing 71 to win by three with a 209 total in the 54-hole tournament.

The two-day team event, to be played under the match play format, starts today with the Pinays, who include LK Go and Abby Arevalo, hoping to bank on Pagdanganan’s victory to compete a two-gold sweep.

Over at Subic Bay Boardwalk, teener Michael Ver Anton Comaling made it a two-gold feat in one of the Games’ newest events, modern pentathlon, as he ruled the beach triathle individual in close fashion in a victory that more than made up for his seventh-place finish in the individual beach laser Thursday.

Samuel German and Princess Arbilon delivered the first modern pentathlon gold with a victory in beach laser mixed relay Wednesday. The Nationals go for a third gold at 9 a.m. today in beach triathlete mixed relay.

In Pampanga, Takahashi overcame an opening match setback to claim the women’s -70kg gold, the Philippines’ third in judo after Fil-Japanese Kiyomi Watanabe and Shugen Nakano took the women’s -63kg and men’s -66kg gold, respectively, Thursday.

The 18-year-old Takahashi ended up tied with Ayu Kakihara I Gusti of Indonesia and Thongsri Surattara of Thailand with 1-1 (win-loss) records. But the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEAG gold medalist took the gold as she beat Surattara via ippon.

Takahashi lost to Kakihara I Gusti via wazari while the latter lost to Surattara also via wazari.

“The ippon holds more weight than the wazari,” said Philippine Judo Federation president Dave Carter after coming out of a deliberation in breaking the three-way tie.

Ending up with bronze medals were Carl Dave Aseneta (men’s -90kg) and John Viron Ferrer (men’s -100kg). – With Olmin Leyba, Joey Villar, John Bryan Ulanday,

Miguel  La Torre,  Rizanelle Beltran, Marlowe Montenegro