The country’s 840-strong contingent to the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia made it a bountiful month of May for Philippine sports.
The SEA Games bets collared 58 golds, 85 silvers and 117 bronzes — with meet records to boot — in the 12-day joust in Phnom Penh to earn the Philippine Sportswriters Association’s nod as the top achievers for the fifth month of 2023.
The Pinoy athletes wound up fifth overall but easily surpassed their 52-70-105 haul the year before in Vietnam.
Spearheading the Philippine charge were aces in arnis (6-2-4), taekwondo (6-1-8), athletics (4-10-8), wrestling (4-7-5), boxing (4-5-1), gymnastics (4-2-2), and obstacle course race (4-2-0).
World champion gymnast Caloy Yulo accounted for two golds and two silvers, while pole vault star EJ Obiena claimed a three-peat spiked with a new Games mark of 5.65 meters to lead the brightest individual performers in the campaign.
Obstacle course racing stalwarts Mark Julius Rodelas (25.092 seconds) and Precious Cabuya (32.732 seconds) ripped the World Obstacle and Guinness World Records on their way to the individual mints.
The men’s quartet of Jose Mari de Castro Jr., Mervin Guarte, Elias Tabac and Aghie Radem (24.479 seconds) and female counterparts Milky Mae Tejares, Marites Nocyao, Sandi Menchi Abayan and Mecca Cortizano (33.733 seconds) set global OCR standards in their golden runs in relay.
Elreen Ando (59 kilograms) and Vanessa Sarno (71 kgs) took charge in weightlifting in the absence of Olympic champion Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo.
Ando scooped her first SEA Games gold with fresh marks of 98 kgs (snatch), 118 kgs (clean and jerk) and 216 kgs (total), while Sarno lifted a snatch record of 105kgs en route to retaining the crown at 225 kgs.
Xiandi Chua swam to the women’s 200-meter backstroke gold in a record of two minutes and 13.20 seconds while Teia Salvino delivered a new Philippine best of 1:01.64 in her 100m backstroke triumph.
Gilas Pilipinas re-claimed the lost men’s basketball crown with a redeeming and vengeful 80-69 dispatching of host Cambodia and its host of American-born players in the finale to top off the Filipinos’ strong outing.
