Deiparine Ends Phl Gold Medal Drought, Breaks Record On Day 4 Of SEA Games

Gold came scarce on Day 4 of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games though the Philippines remained on top. But Filipino swimmer James Deiparine splashed his way to end a 10-year gold medal drought for the Filipino tankers, whose last taste of a gold medal was in the 2009 Games when Miguel Molina, Ryan Arabejo and Daniel Coakley delivered it home for the Philippines.

Deiparine, a 26-year-old promising swimmer, finally delivered a gold medal for Philippine swimming and shattered the SEA Games record in the 100-meter breaststroke in one minute and 1.46 seconds. His new record broke the old feat posted by Nguyen Huu Viet of Vietnam, who registered 1:01.60.

Deiparine delivered the biggest splash on Wednesday, which also saw golden feats from weightlifter Kristel Macrohon and the muay duo of Jerome Calica and Joemer Gallaza, who ruled the men’s wai kru competitions.

Along the way, there’s a new sport introduced in this year’s edition of the games – obstacle course – and right away, Filipino bets quickly made their presence felt and took home the gold medal. The country’s entries in all events swept the opposition on their way to producing four gold medals on the day we saw local athletes also having close encounters and ending up falling short of winning the gold.

One of them is darling of the crowd Carlos Yulo, already a two-time gold winner in this year’s edition, but wound up settling for silver medal finishes in the last five events he joined. Yesterday, he had two runner-up finishes – the men’s horizontal bar and the parallel bars.

The fencing team also came up with another solid effort and ending up with a silver as Hanniel Abella lost to Abdul Rahman Kiria Tikanah of Malaysia, 15-12.

While winning the gold came a bit scarce for the Filipinos this time, the host country was still able to keep hold of the overall lead in the medal race with 56 gold, 41 silver and 22 bronze medals.

Still running in second is Vietnam with 27 gold, 32 silver and 33 bronze medals while Malaysia is inching closer at third with 21 gold, 12 silver and 22 bronze medals.

The Philippines’ gold production enabled the national contingent to collect its best haul of gold medals in 12 years. In the 2007 edition of the Games, the Filipinos were able to bag 41 gold medals in Thailand, but since then, the country had a noticeable decline in performance in the biennial games.

With the multi-sports event only on its fourth day, the Filipinos are still very much on track of their ambitious goal of winning at least 130 gold medals, which, according to Philippine Olympic Committee president Bambol Tolentino, is the ideal target to win the overall championship.

No slowing down

At 65, Efren “Bata” Reyes is making his farewell tour in the SEA Games.

Already a two-time world champion and hailed as one of the greatest ever to play the game of pool/billiards, the man known as “The Magician” still has plenty of tricks on his bag.

On his debut game this year in the one-cushion carom event, Reyes was able to dominate his Thai counterpart, Thongchai Punyawee, 100-37, to assure himself of a medal.

But he will be facing a tough task on Thursday as he faces world champion Ngo Dinh Nai from Vietnam.

“Mahirap kalaban ‘yun kasi magaling, pero susubukan ko,” added Reyes, who won both the world championships of the 9-Ball and 8-Ball disciplines that cemented his place as one of the world’s best cue artists ever.

Mixed fortunes for pool players

Billiards/pool has always been a good source of gold medals for the Filipinos in the SEA Games, but disaster struck on two squads, which are favored to win the competition and end up with a gold-silver medal finish.

Instead, the teams of Carlo Biado and Johann Chua and Warren Kiamco and Jeffrey Ignacio fell prey against their less heralded but more determined rivals in the semifinals and ousted them in the race for the gold medal.

First to go was the pair of Biado and Chua, who got themselves clobbered by the tandem of Toh Lian Han and Aloysius Yapp of Singapore, 9-3.

The Singaporeans came out with their guns blazing, sinking one ball after another and before the Filipinos knew it, they found themselves trailing, 7-0, and on the brink of defeat.

Biado and Chua did win three of the next five racks, but the seven-point lead was too much to overcome and the Singaporeans were able to deliver the knockout blow when they salvaged two more racks and wrapped up the match.

Kiamco and Ignacio also suffered the same fate of crashing out of the race for the gold medal, but unlike their compatriots, the pair was able to put on a gallant stand, only to lose against the duo of Thu Aung Moe and Phone Myint Kaw of Myanmar, who both played as if they have nothing to lose.

True enough, the Myanmar tandem was just having fun out there, but they mixed their great time on the table with a relentless performance, especially when the Filipinos engaged them in a battle of safety shots.

Down to another hill-hil encounter, the Filipinos resorted to their old tactics of safety exchanges and it backfired on then when Myanmar found ways to extricate the balls.

In the end, Ignacio, the younger player of the two Filipino bets, succumbed to pressure when he missed a difficult shot at the corner on No. 6, allowing the Myanmar pair to get some opening and clean up the table from there.

With their male counterparts licking the wounds of their painful setbacks, it’s time for Rubilen Amit and Chezka Centeno, two players entered in the women’s 10-Ball single, to put on a show and kept their hopes of winning the gold.

Amit and Centeno beat their respective opponents with ease to quickly move on to the medal round.

A two-time world champion in the 10-Ball discipline, Amit nearly swept her rival from Vietnam, Bui Xuan Vang, 7-1 while Centeno, the reigning two-time SEA Games gold medalist, defeated Sukritthanes Waratthanun of Thailand, 7-3.

Overpowering debut

Gilas Pilipinas handed Singapore a sound beating, 110-58, giving Tim Cone his first win in the international basketball circuit since 1998.

Troy Rosario finished with 15 points while Stanley Pringle and debuting national team player Vic Manuel each contributed 14 for Gilas Pilipinas, which more importantly re-establishing itself as the most dominant team in the Southeast Asian region.

“I think this team will get better. The more games we play, we’ll become a better team and we’ll be more coordinated on what we do, we’ll be coordinated defensively,” said Cone. “I love the way we started the game when Chris Ross came out and blocked the star player of Singapore right in their first possession and that kinda send a message that we’re out here to play defense.”

True enough, defense will be the battle cry of the Philippine men’s basketball team as it tries to defend the championship it’s been holding since 1991, the same year the country hosted the SEA Games.