Philippines remains in No. 4 in medal race of ASEAN Para Games

THE Philippines raked in medals in athletics, swimming and chess on Sunday to continue its stranglehold of No. 4 in the medal race and eclipse its previous performance nearing the conclusion of the 13^th ASEAN Para Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

Cleford Trocino, Evenezer Celebrado and Cyril Cloyd Ongcoy each struck gold in centerpiece track and field while Gary Bejino claimed his fourth gold medal at the pool.

FIDE Master Sander Severino and Darry Bernardo snared a gold each in the individual men’s PI and B2, respectively, in rapid chess to hike their total to three mints each.

Mr. Trocino clocked two minutes and .16 second to rule the men’s 800-meter (m) T52 where he also edged countryman Jerrold Pete Mangliwan, who settled for his second silver in 2:00.73.

Mr. Celebrado, for his part, timed in 20:03.55 in reigning supreme in men’s 5000-m T11 while Mr. Ongcoy registered 17:32.19 in topping the 5000-m T12 for their second gold in this biennial event.

Mr. Severino dumped Indonesian Azhar Panjaitan in the sixth and last round and then edged another Indonesian Maksum Firdaus, who likewise finished with five points for a share of first, via tiebreaker to snare the gold.

In contrast, Mr. Bernardo encountered less trouble as he needed to just split the point with Indonesia’s Adji Hartono in the last round to run away with the gold with 5.5 points, or a clear full point over Indonesian Gayuh Satrio and Mr. Hartono, who settled for the silver and bronze, respectively.

Those triumphs kept the country well entrenched at fourth with a 37-gold, 27-silver and 43-bronze haul behind Thailand (155-145-135), Indonesia (117-113-95), and Malaysia (56-56-63).

It also surpassed the country’s 33-gold, 33-silver, 50-bronze haul for a fifth-place finish in Phnom Penh, Cambodia three years ago. — Joey Villar