HANOI—The gold medals came in trickles anew on Thursday and with victories notched in only two fronts—bowling and judo—in the 31st Southeast Asian Games on Thursday, the Philippines dropped to a tight race for fourth place in the overall medals race that host Vietnam solidly gripped with four days of action remaining.
The men’s team of four of bowling led by Merwin Tan and in collaboration with Christian Dychangco, Ivan Malig and Patrick Nuqui started the day on high note by adding a gold to Tan’s singles triumph on Monday.
Team Philippines was silent for most of the day until Rena Furukawa Lanoy nipped Chu Myat Noe Wai of Myanmar, 1-0, to bag the women’s minus 57 kgs class gold medal the Hoai Duc Gymnasium.
The victories raised the haul of Team Philippines—backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee—to 40 gold medals that included a late-night conquest of the women’s Wild Rift team in esports on Wednesday.
With only two gold medals, Indonesia dislodged the Philippines at third place, shoving the Filipinos—limited to four golds Tuesday and three Wednesday—in a tight battle for fourth with the Singaporeans.
Vietnam is in full throttle toward the overall title with a harvest of 149-88-80 gold-silver-bronze early evening Thursday, followed by Thailand with 58-65-92. Indonesia moved up to third with 41-59-55.
The Filipinos also had 55 silver and 76 bronze medals, enough to stave off Singapore which also had 40 golds but with 41 silvers and 52 bronzes.
Marathoner Christine Hallasgo battled cramps to lose her crown to Indonesian Odekta Naibaho Elvina, who won gold in two hours, 55 minutes and28 seconds. Vietnam’s Ngoc Hoa Hoang Thi was third in 2:57.350.
Basketball, tennis, boxing and billiards provided victories for Team Philippines for potential gold medals.
Expected to lift the country’s morale is Tokyo Olympics champion Hidilyn Diaz, who is favored to rule the women’s 55 kgs class in women’s weightlifting on Friday.
Also winning silver medals were Grandmaster Darwin Laylo and International Master Paulo Bersamina in rapid chess; archer Jennifer Chan and Paul Marton dela Cruz in the mixed team competition; judokas Keisei Nakano and John Viron Ferrer, and wrestlers Roni Tubog, Alvin Lobreguito, and Jhonny Morte.
Another judoka, Megui Kurayoshi, settled for the bronze, along with Janella Mae Frayna and Antoinette San Diego in chess, the team of Paul dela Cruz, Flor Matan and Johan Olano in archery’s men’s team competition, weightlifter Rosegie Ramos, taekwondo’s Israel Cesar Cantos, karatedos Ivan Agustin, the kata team of Nicole Dantes, Rebecca Torres, and Sarah Pangilinan, and Ramon Misu.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes