PHNOM PENH. – Veteran Joseph Arcilla completed a dream golden run in the men’s individual soft tennis event Wednesday, averting what could have been a gold-medal shutout as the Philippine drive sputtered in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games here.
Bucking cramps, Arcilla, 37, humbled Muhammad Anugerah of Indonesia 4-1 in their title match and delivered the country’s third gold and the unofficial overall championship in the discipline that featured six nations with a 3-gold, 1-silver and 1-bronze haul.
In all, Arcilla, the younger brother of Johnny, a former regular on the national tennis team, scored four wins, including an 8-6 decision over Kawin Yannarit of Thailand in the semifinals where he dug deep to stay in the match despite cramping up.
“I had difficulty fighting the Thai, that’s why we reached 8-6. This is the reason why I had cramps after the game and in the finals. But I just always remembered what our psychologist told us, to just think positive when inside the court,” said Arcilla, who retained the men’s singles title.
Gilas Pilipinas opened its bid for a third straight women’s basketball crown, whipping Cambodia 114-54 at the Morodok Techo Elephant Hall 2.
But the Gilas men will be severely tested Thursday when the squad battles the naturalized-heavy Cambodian side, with the winner likely to gain the inside track in the battle for the gold.
Cambodia, coming off a golden win in the 3×3 event last Sunday, trounced Singapore 85-60 in its initial outing Wednesday in regular men’s basketball.
While the gold medal machines of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand were in full production mode, the Philippines slipped to fifth overall from fourth last Tuesday, raising concerns whether Pinoy athletes can muster enough strength to duplicate the country’s 52-gold haul last year in Vietnam, good for fourth in the medal tally.
As of 8:30 p.m., Vietnam showed the way with a harvest of 48-46-55, with host Cambodia a close second (46-41-51), followed by Thailand (44-41-51), and Indonesia (33-31-55).
In contrast, the Philippine delegation, backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee, only had 26 gold medals to show, along with 44 silver and 54 bronze medals.
The 37-year-old Arcilla’s medal win, the country’s third in soft tennis, enabled Pinoy netters to secure the unofficial overall championship in the discipline but this hardly made up for the failure of the delegation to sustain its medal drive in other fronts, especially the medal rich sports of athletics and swimming.
A day after Janry Ubas finally become a SEA Games champion in long jump, delivering the country’s second gold after pole vaulter EJ Obiena’s win last Monday, the best athletics could muster was a bronze by Fil-Spanish John Cabang Tolentino in the 110m hurdles, where he clocked 13.855 seconds.
Nikki Zoleta bagged a silver in women’s individual soft tennis, one of five that Pinoy athletes won for the day, the others being in women’s six-a-side cricket, pencak silat, and two in sepak takraw and chinlone.
Pinoy swimmers were limited to one medal, a bronze, courtesy of Jarond Lang Hatch in the men’s 50m butterfly.
Raising hopes of a Pinoy fightback were the boxers, with seven of them advancing to the finals, led by Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Nesthy Petecio who scored a 5-0 shutout unanimous decision victory over Vy Sreysros of Cambodia in the women’s featherweight class semis.
Also gaining finals berths were Rogen Ladon, Ian Clark Bautista, Norlan Petecio, John Marvin, Irish Magno and Riza Pasuit.
