|
NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand: Team Philippines relied on the golden
efforts by a pair of polio victims Tuesday to keep its precarious
grip of fifth place in the Fourth Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (Asean) Para Games at His Majesty the King’s 80th
Anniversary Stadium here.
The 37-year-old Medina downed compatriot Minnie
de Ramos, 11-4, 11-5, 11-4, 11-4, in the race-to-four sets table
tennis finals at the Surapat 3 at the Surananaree University of
Technology campus to match her double gold medal effort in the 2005
Manila Para Games.
The golden performance came on a day after the
1987 National Open champion teamed up with the one-armed,
33-year-old de Ramos in topping the Open Class 6-10 section of
women’s doubles.
And Medina, who has a shorter left leg caused by
polio, is set to win more as she is scheduled to lead RP in the team
events late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
“I hope to win more gold medals,” said
Medina, who is based in Marikina City but manages her farm in Oas,
Albay, in Filipino.
Another polio victim, 27-year-old Joel Balatucal,
ruled the discus throw with a heave of 21.51 meters that not only
pocketed him the gold but also broke the Para Games record of 20.33
set by RP’s Jerico Openia in Manila.
“I’m so happy I won, this is for the
Philippines,” said an ecstatic Balatucal, who works as a computer
repairman in Novaliches, also in Filipino.
Over at the Surasummanarkarn Building situated
at the Suranaree University of Technology campus, Sander Severino
and his band of gutsy wood pushers looked headed to sweeping all
four gold medals in the men’s wheelchair/ambulant and visually
impaired sections.
Out to spearhead the country’s defense of its
chess title, Severino, 22, and Henry Lopez, 27, downed countrymen
Joven Mailig and Alexis Elinon, respectively, to share the lead
after the third round with three points apiece. Rudy Sarmiento,
Abraham Peligro and Francis Ching, for their part, downed Choo Min
of Malaysia, Pham L. of Vietnam and Raymond Tay of Singapore,
respectively, to remain in close pursuit of unbeaten Edy Suryanto of
Indonesia.
The highest scorer after the seven-round Swiss
System event bags the gold while the cumulative scores of the best
three per each country will be added to determine the team winner.
And it looked like the Filipinos are going
there.
“We can’t afford to play complacent so I
told our players to win as much games as they can,” said RP team
coach Grandmaster Joey Antonio.
As of press time, RP was at shaky fifth with
five golds, nine silvers and four bronzes behind No. 4 Indonesia’s
eight-gold, four-silver and seven-bronze haul.
On their way to a third overall championship,
the Thais remained unreachable with a 67-29-29 (gold-silver-bronze)
harvest while the Malaysians and the Vietnamese were hotly
contesting second place with 23-21-10 and 19-19-12 hauls,
respectively.
|
