CLARK, Philippines – The Philippine arnis team continued to dominate the 2019 Southeast Asian Games and pushed to become the country’s most bemedalled team with 12 golds on Monday, December 2 at the Angeles University Foundation. 

The Nationals opened their campaign on Sunday, December 1, with 5 mints from the combat live stick events, highlighted by a sweep of the men’s team.

While the women’s team only had one gold on Sunday, the squad surged ahead by going a perfect 4-of-4 in the padded stick events. 

Sheena del Monte opened the floodgates in the bantamweight division, followed by golden performances from Ross Ashley Monville in the lightweight division and Jedah Mae Soriano in the featherweight division. 

Abegail Abad closed out the day’s events with a gold in the welterweight division after defeating Vietnam’s Thi Cuc Nguyen. 

The men’s side fell short of a sweep as it bagged 3 mints thanks to Jesfer Huquire in the bantamweight division, Elmer Manlapas in the featherweight division and Carloyd Tejada in the welterweight division. 

“Kahit maraming struggles, nakamit natin ‘yung gintong medalya – ‘yung inaasam natin lahat – and ‘yung moment na ‘yung nananalo ka, banat na banat ‘yung kalaban, ang sarap sa feeling na-feel mo na ikaw talaga ‘yung panalo,” said Manlapas. 

(Although there are a lot of struggles, we were able to win the gold, which is what we hoped for. And that moment when you won, it feels so great because you know that your opponent gave his all, but you’re the one who prevailed.) 

Billy Joel Valenzuela settled for silver in the lightweight division after falling to Cambodia’s Mengly Yong. – Rappler.com