PHNOM PENH—The chase for gold medals continue for Team Philippines on Saturday with obstacle racers formally adding two more gold medals to the Philippine coffers in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games that formally open Friday night at the Morodok Techo Stadium.
Jiu-jitsu fighters are also hoping to duplicate Kaila Napolis’s victory two nights ago while entries in 15 other disciplines also get going for Team Philippines which bagged two gold, two silver and three bronze medals to run second behind Cambodia’s 5-4-0 haul on Thursday.
The finals of the men’s and women’s individual 100 meters event of obstacle racing at the Chroy Changvar Convention Center Car Park starting at 8 a.m. are all-Filipino for the guaranteed gold medals.
Kevin Pascua, winner of the men’s class in the inaugural staging of the event in Philippines 2019, squares off with Mark Julius Rodelas while Precious Cabuya and Kaizen de la Serna dispute the women’s title.
Filipino athletes in athletics, swimming, 3×3 basketball, boxing, cycling, e-sports, artistic gymnastics, karate, vovinam, pencak silat, pétanque, sepak takraw, soft tennis, tennis, aquathlon and the demonstration sport of teqball are also seeing action Saturday.
Annie Ramirez, Myron Mangubat and Michael Tiu hope to follow Napolis’s gold-medal showing in women’s ne-waza GI 52kg category.
Ramirez is vying in women’s ne-waza NOGI 57 kg, class Mangubat competes in the men’s ne-waza GI 62kg division and Tiu clashes in the men’s ne-waza GI 69kg event.
Napolis’s golden finish, the country’s first mint in this year’s games, means the jiu jitsu team needs just one more victory to match its two-gold medal haul in the Vietnam Games last year.
Ramirez won the gold in the 62kg class of the last games.
Chairman Richard “Dickie”
Bachmann with the country’s
first gold medalist Kaila Napolis
during the podium ceremony
for jiu-jitsu on Thursday.
Cabuya, fresh from her world record 33.128 in the heats, and De la Serna, coming off her own best of 34.836, battle it out in an equally explosive finale in the women’s division.
The obstacle racers are hoping to set a trend for Team Philippines whose participation in the Games are backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and Philippine Olympic Committee.
“I expect the finals to be an excellent fight because we have the same technics,” Rodelas said.
Rodelas is gunning for his first SEA Games championship after taking bronze behind winner Pascua four years ago in Manila while also setting his sights on a 24-second performance.
“I’m 100 percent ready and confident,” he said. “This is great, a Filipino will surely come out winner.”
“Our common goal is the gold medal and at the same time come up with a clean run and no injuries for both of us,” Pascua said.
Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna and Woman International Master Shania Mae Mendoza, on the other hand, will officially clinch silver medal in ouk chaktrang (Cambodian chess) women’s doubles 60-minute also on Saturday.
The Filipina tandem was already assured of a runner-up finish last Tuesday by virtue of a 4-1 record with 4.0 points, a full point behind would-be champion Vietnam, which handed them their only loss in the tournament.
Image credits: Roy Domingo