FEW really knew what the country’s athletes went through as they prepared for the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam, originally set in November 2021. They gained a five-month reprieve after the biennial games was reset to May 2022 due to the spike in coronavirus cases in Hanoi and neighboring areas.
But even that was not enough to prepare them for the coming battle ahead.
Sports scribes who traveled with majority of the athletes to Hanoi sensed the uneasy calm among delegation members. Sure, there were smiles all around, high-fives, the usual jig.
But as soon as they returned to their seats in the waiting lounge of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, majority stared at nothing, most likely contemplating what lies ahead: Will their insufficient training and lack of foreign exposure enable them to crash the podium?
Sports officials gave them every encouragement known to man — that their rivals in Vietnam also lacked training and stints in foreign tournaments, their fellow Filipinos expect them to give their best, that incentives are awaiting them, so on and so forth.
What the officials did not say is best said in the vernacular: “Pagalingan na lang.”
It did not help that Vietnamese organizers, no newbies as hosts, having initially held the 2003 games, were far from prepared. Identification cards were sorted out at the last-minute, transportation was inadequate, the sort that gives you warning signs.
To the horror of the working press, with a day to go before the curtains rose on the games, workers were still putting up finishing touches at the My Din National Stadium, seats were dusty, there were no electronic timers, there was no media center; and to top it all, the games website still was not working.
The Philippine delegation, however, took it all in stride. Have they seen the worst, perhaps?
Nobody could say.
The Philippine campaign got off to an auspicious start barely 24 hours before the games were declared open, with Mary Francine Padios, 18, a proud product of Kalibo, Aklan scoring an emotional victory in the artistic form of pencak silat. Inspired by the misfortune that struck her father before Christmas last year, she improved on her silver medal finish in the 2019 Philippine Games.
“My dad has become my inspiration after he figured in a terrible car accident on her way home in Aklan just before Christmas,” said Padios, whose dad went into coma. “He was so exhausted and drowsy from work that he slept at the wheel and met with an accident.”
Pinoy sports officials expressed hope that Padio’s surprise but welcome victory would set the tone for the next 12 days of action.
They were wrong.
After failing to win a gold on opening day, the Philippine campaign perked up slightly on Friday the 13th, courtesy of world gymnastics champion Carlos Yulo, 22, who bucked a slip in the pommel horse to prevail and lead a modest three gold haul.
Ernest John Obiena, like Yulo a Tokyo Olympian and one of several world-class athletes in the delegation, smashed the SEA Games record in pole vault the next day as the Philippines bagged seven gold medals and started jostling for third place, what officials said was a reachable target, even as Vietnam pulled away from the pack.
On the fourth day of action, Yulo led an eight-gold haul as the Philippines, to the elation of everybody, gave Thailand a good fight for second overall. Artistic gymnastics proved to be a gold mine for the Philippines as Yulo and Fil-Am Aleah Finnegan won a combined three golds while Kim Mangrobang added the duathlon gold to her earlier triumph in women’s triathlon.
The eight-gold haul, which matched the team’s output a day before, jacked up the country’s total to 20, just one behind Thailand. Host Vietnam moved out of reach with a haul of 64-42-41, with Thailand having 21-22-41, the Philippines 20-25-36, Indonesia 17-26-16, and Malaysia completing the top five with 16-11-29.
The next day, Yulo completed a five-gold romp while dancesport scored four rousing victories as the Philippines came up with its best performance yet, going on a 10-gold medal rush to stay on the coattails of Thailand in their heated battle for second overall.
Yulo, 22, expectedly triumphed in the apparatus where he is the reigning world champion, dominating the vault finals and adding a surprise gold in the horizontal bars as he ended his second SEA Games stint with a shot at becoming the best male athlete.
Before Tokyo Olympics gold medal winner Hidilyn Diaz climbed the stage, Fil-Am Kayla Richardson regained the 100m dash crown she won in 2015 as a teenager as the Philippines barely held off a spirited challenge by Indonesia for third overall. But Richardson’s gold was just one of three won by the country on the seventh day.
But the Pinoy medal rush stalled the next day, being limited to just two, leaving the delegation hoping that Diaz could give the team the needed spark.
Indonesia dislodged the Philippines at third and left the Filipinos battling for fourth against the Singaporeans.
Diaz mustered the strength to raise the bar in her first attempt in the clean and jerk to prevail in an entertaining duel with Thai Tanasan Sanikun and keep her weightlifting crown.
“My journey to Paris starts here, so this SEA Games gold is very important for me,” said Diaz, who also triumphed in the 2019 Games.
“Napaka-meaningful nito (SEAG). After winning the gold medal (in Tokyo), bumalik pa din ako, nakapag-deliver ng gold medal for the Philippines. Masaya ako na nandito ako ulit ako sa SEA Games, na i-represent ang Pilipinas,” she added after delivering the country’s 42nd gold.
Proving her worth as Asian champion, Vanessa Sarno handily ruled in record-breaking fashion the women’s 71 kg class of weightlifting as she made a triumphant debut in the Games.
Sarno, 18, crushed the competition, lifting 104kg in the snatch and 135kg in the clean and jerk for a 239kg total, all new SEA Games and Philippine records.
“I am so happy that I am one of the gold medalists here in the Southeast Asian Games. I never thought I would win the gold because this is my first time here,” said Sarno, whose victory installed her as the heir apparent of Diaz.
By this time, Vietnam had steamed full ahead to the overall title while Thailand, once jostling with the Philippines for second, moved up to solo second, followed by Indonesia.
The Filipinos were locked in a tight battle for fourth with Singapore, leaving Philippine Olympic Committee President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino counting the gold medal prospects going into the last day of action.
The boxers, led by Tokyo bronze medal winner Eumir Marcial, led a five-day gold haul on the last day of action, enabling the Philippines to finally snatch fourth from the Singaporeans. But even the final day haul lost luster after Gilas Pilipinas failed to win the gold cherished most by Filipinos, losing 81-85 to the Indonesians. Basketball was limited to just one gold, courtesy of the Gilas women’s squad, which failed to score a sweep and bagged the title only via the winner-over-the-other rule over Indonesia.
The 52nd and last gold for the country was delivered by Muay athlete Philip Delarmino, who was originally named the silver medal winner. A protest lodged by the Philippines was upheld and he was awarded the gold.
There were other multiple gold medal winners, among them billiards stars Carlo Biado and Rubilyn Amit, and bowler Merwin Tan, who ended the country’s long search for a gold medal. Legend Efren “Bata” Reyes was limited to a bronze but he proved that, at 67, he’s still one of the most revered athletes in the region.
The 52 gold medals, on top of 70 silver and 104 bronze medals was miles better than the measly 23 gold, 33 silver and 64 bronze medals that Pinoy athletes won in the 2017 Malaysia Games, the last time a national contingent competed overseas, for a woeful sixth place finish.
“We congratulate our athletes. They showed resiliency when the going got rough. Despite the adversity they faced in preparing for the games, they rose to the challenge,” said Tolentino.
“We could have done better but we’ll take it. We had high hopes going to Hanoi but we encountered a buzz-saw that was the Vietnamese juggernaut. We won a lot of silver medals, the ones that got away,” he said, ruing anew the fate met by lots of Filipino athletes in various disciplines who fell prey to subjective judging.
After showering praises on the athletes, Tolentino shifted his focus to next year’s games in Cambodia, where Pinoy athletes, he said, will compete in all disciplines.
