PHNOM PENH. – Hours after the celebration of Mother’s Day, women power carried the day on Monday as a 44-year-old mother starred in a gutsy five-gold medal harvest that pushed the Philippines past the 50-gold mark in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games here.
Cristina Vergara, 44, pressed into action as a substitute fighter when the country’s bet in the 65kg women’s category got injured, beat Cambodia’s Sambat Vannak via a 12-2 technical superiority to secure the gold in freestyle wrestling, leading two other female athletes who delivered golden wins for the day.
Vergara’s daughter, 18-year-old Cathlyn, competing in the 59kg class, made it a spectacular family affair in freestyle wrestling, winning a bronze medal. There was no immediate confirmation if it’s the first time a mother-and-daughter tandem from the Philippines scored the feat.
Weightlifter Vanessa Sarno started the day right for the Pinoy contingent, extending her reign in the women’s 71kg category in record fashion despite the lack of sleep, having come all the way from the Asian championships in Jinju, South Korea.
Sarno, 19, who won three silver medals in the Korean joust, cleared 105 pounds in the snatch in her third attempt, shattering her own record of 104 pounds set last year. She then lifted 120 on her first attempt in the clean and jerk for a total of 225 for the gold.
Female arnis exponent Ma. Ella Alcoseba delivered the country’s third gold for the day, ruling the women’s full contact live stick contest in the bantamweight class, while Dexler Sandigan Bolambao won the country’s fourth mint by topping the same weight class in the men’s division.
Kick boxer Jean Claude Saclag bagged the fifth gold by ruling the men’s low kick under 63.5kg category.
Gilas Pilipinas added to the country’s celebration by ending the one-year reign of Indonesia, scoring an 84-76 decision in their semis battle and arranging a rematch for the gold with Cambodia at 3 p.m. (4 p.m. in Manila) on Tuesday.
The Indonesians, who dethroned the Filipinos as the region’s basketball king last year, led 74-70 with seven minutes left, but Justin Brownlee, who had 15 points in the fourth, hit back-to-back treys as Gilas grabbed the lead at 76-74 and gained control the rest of the way.
The win arranged a grudge match against the souped-up Cambodian team of naturalized American players, who handed the Filipinos a bitter 79-68 spanking in the eliminations.
The five-gold haul pushed the Philippine squad, backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee, within a gold of duplicating the country’s 52-gold haul last year in Vietnam.
Earlier in the day, POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino expressed confidence Pinoy athletes will surpass the Vietnam harvest, adding he expects the team to reach the 60-gold mark.
“We will surpass our medal tally in Vietnam,” said Tolentino. “It’s achievable. God-willing, it might (even) reach 60 (golds).”
In its Facebook page, the PSC welcomed the elder Vergara’s golden finish, saying: “Philippine wrestling team playing coach Cristina Vergara is more than ready to hang her Team Philippines jersey after successfully clinching the country’s 48th gold medal.”
Sent into action after the country’s original bet in the 65kg category, Levi Espuerta, got injured, Vergara won her third SEA Games gold on top of one silver and a bronze. She won her other gold medals in the 2003 and 2005 games.
“Di ko maipaliwanag ang emosyon ko, napakasaya ko,” said Vergara.
“I never thought I can still do it,” added Vergara, who came out of retirement several years ago after deciding to hang her jersey after the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand.
Cathlyn couldn’t duplicate her mother’s gold but made Vergara doubly proud. Ann Tuyet Tran of Vietnam won the gold in her class, with Salinee Srisombat of Thailand bagging the silver.
“I keep pushing her to train smart and harder because she has the opportunity to excel. She can still go to the Olympics because she’s still young,” Vergara said of Cathlyn, a first year BS Nutrition and Dietetics student at University of Santo Tomas.
Vergara’s gold was the second for wrestling here after Jason Balabal’s triumph in the men’s 87 kg Greco Roman event last Sunday.
“It’s a great improvement on our part after coming out with no gold medals in the last Vietnam Games,” Alvin Aguilar, the president of the Wrestling Association of the Philippines, said. “I am really happy that they delivered.”
Pinoy wrestler had seven silvers and five bronzes in last year’s Hanoi games.
The Gilas Pilipinas women’s squad humbled Malaysia 77-63 and claimed a silver, down from the team’s golden finish last year in Vietnam.
Kickboxer Renalyn Dacquel won the silver medal in the women’s full contact under 48kg Kickboxing event against Vietnamese Nga Nguyen Thi Hang while judoka Leah Jane Lopez bagged a bronze medal in the under 48 kg event, the same finish of Jeanalane Lopez in the under 44kg division.
Jason Huerte, Rheyjey Ortouste and Elly Jan Nituda won a bronze medal in the sepak takraw men’s doubles event while the men’s epee team in fencing — Jian Bautista, Rex dela Cruz, Lee Ergina and Noelito Jose — also won a bronze medal.
