PATTAYA, Thailand – A gold medal in swimming that holds so much significance highlighted Day One of the Philippines’ campaign at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games on Wednesday.
Kayla Sanchez, Xiandi Chua, Chloe Isleta, and Heather Santos ruled the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay in three minutes, 44.26 seconds to cap the Philippines' two-gold medal haul to start off the biennial showcase.
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Taekwondo jin Justin Kobe Macario gained the distinction as the first gold medalist of the Philippines of the Thailand Games by ruling the men’s poomsae individual freestyle in the morning session.
The gold of Sanchez, a 2024 Olympian with Canada, and company was hailed by the Philippine swimming community as unofficial records showed Singapore has ruled the event over the past five years.
The pair of golds sent the Philippines to sixth place in the medal tally as it also took two silver and nine bronze medals before the day could end.
The silver medalists on Day 1 were the men’s recognized poomsae team of Rodolfo Reyes, King Nash Alcairo, and Ian Corton, and swimmer Gian Santos in the men’s 200m individual medley.
John Derick Farr was the first medalist of the Philippine delegation after taking the bronze in the MTB downhill run in cycling.
Other bronze medalists for the day were Macario, who added a medal on his resume in the mixed poomsae freestyle with Darius Venerable, Jeus Gabriel Derick Yape, Juvenile Faye Crisostomo, and Janna Dominique Oliva.
Taekwondo had multiple medals in Day 1 as the mixed pair recognized poomsae event duo of Patrick King Perez and Jocel Lyn Ninobla also won a bronze.
The Makruk chess team, the men’s and women’s hoop takraw, and Godwin Langbayan in the ju-jitsu men’s fighting 62kg won bronze medalists as well.
There were heartbreaks, too.
The Gilas Pilipinas 3x3 Women squad missed out on the semifinals after going winless in the group stage while boxer Ian Clark Bautista's defense of his 57kg title ended prematurely after a loss to Thai bet Sarawut Sukthet.
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