MANILA, Philippines – Medals continued to rain the Philippines’ way in the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam as the country raised its gold tally to 12 on Saturday, May 14.

Two of the seven golds the Philippines captured came from jiu-jitsu, with Meggie Ochoa and Annie Ramirez reasserting their mastery in another dominant SEA Games showing.

Ochoa ruled the women’s 48kg with a win over home bet Minh Duong Thi Thanh of Vietnam as she added another SEA Games gold to her collection after topping the women’s 45kg in 2019.

The women’s 55kg champion in the previous SEA Games, Ramirez bagged the gold after toppling Orapa Senatham of Thailand.

Carlo Angelo Pena fell short of making it a treble for jiu-jitsu as he wound up with silver in the men’s 62kg.

Samantha Catantan became the first Filipino fencer to win gold in Vietnam after she reigned in the women’s individual foil event.

Catantan eclipsed her bronze finish in the 2019 SEA Games after beating Maxine Jie Xin Wong of Singapore.

Fencing added a silver courtesy of Noelito Jose, who improved his ranking in the men’s individual epee after copping bronze in the previous SEA Games.

While all eyes are on Carlos Yulo in artistic gymnastics, the Philippines clinched gold in the women’s team all-around by edging host Vietnam and Singapore.

Aleah Finnegan also grabbed silver in the women’s individual all-around as she led Chiara Andrew, Charlie Manzano, Lucia Gutierrez, Kursten Lopez, and Cristina Loberanes in the team event.

The Philippines’ other gold medals on Saturday came from EJ Obiena (men’s pole vault), Kim Mangrobang (women’s triathlon), and Fernando Casares (men’s triathlon).

Missed chance

Although it was a successful day for the Philippines, the country failed to defend gold medals it won in the last SEA Games.

Wushu standout Agatha Wong saw the end of her reign in women’s taijiquan as she settled for silver, with teammate Jones Inso taking home bronze in the men’s taijijian.

The 2017 and 2019 champion in women’s taijiquan, Wong lost to Alisya Mellynar of Indonesia.

With reigning champion Kristina Knott unable to compete due to a foot injury, the Philippines lost in the women’s 200m as sisters Kyla and Kayla Richardson bagged silver and bronze, respectively.

The Richardsons tried to pull out all the stops but were simply outran by Veronica Shanti Pereira of Singapore.

Like Wong, javelin thrower Melvin Calano stumbled in his title-retention bid after finishing behind Nguyen Hoai Van of Vietnam and Abdul Hafiz of Indonesia for the bronze.

Joanie Delgaco, a bronze winner in the women’s lightweight quadruples sculls and women’s quadruple sculls, contributed a silver in the women’s single sculls as rowing continued to produce medals.

Olympian Cris Nievarez (men’s lightweight single sculls) and Edgar Ilas and Zuriel Sumintac (men’s lightweight pair) paddled their way to bronzes.

Wushu provided more bronzes from Francis Solis (men’s sanda 65kg), Gideon Fred Padua (men’s sanda 60kg), Clemente Tabugara (men’s sanda 70kg), and Divine Wally (women’s sanda 48kg).

The other bronze winners were Miranda Renner (women’s swimming 100m freestyle), Joida Gagnao (women’s athletics 5000m), Alfrence Braza (men’s athletics 1500m), the mixed relay 4x400m relay squad. – Rappler.com