Chess capped the Philippine Campaign in the 11th ASEAN Para Games on a golden note Friday with a sweep of the men’s B2-B3 and women’s PI individual and team blitz events, respectively, at the Lo-rin Hotel.
Darry Bernardo took the individual gold while anchoring the squad that also included Menandro Redor and Arman Subaste in the men’s B2-B3 category, while Cheyzer Mendoza did the same in teaming up with Cheryl Angot and Jean-Lee Nacita in the women’s PI class.
Slipping through the Filipinos’ fingers were the two mints at stake in the men’s PI blitz event as FIDE Master Sander Severino wound up with an individual silver while his partners Henry Mendoza and Felix Aguilera also took team runner-up honors. Nonetheless, Severino emerged as the country’s most bemedaled athlete with four gold and two silvers in the 11-nation sportsfest in the stint supported by the PhilippineSports Commission.
With the four gold, two silvers, and one bronze medal that the PH chessers bagged, the country likewise had its all-time best outing in the regional Games with 28 gold, 28 silver and 44 bronze medals, eclipsing the 20-20-29 tally in placing fifth overall in the 2017 Malaysian edition.
The performance also exceeded the previous best of the country of 24-24-26 in the 2009 meet also held in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
This recent performance ought to be good for fourth overall, which, however, was still not reflected in the official APG website as of 6 p.m. (7 p.m. in Manila) here, with the Philippines still lodged in fifth place at 23-24-40 behind Malaysia at 28-15-8.
As expected, Indonesia was on top of the heap with a whopping tally of 134-102-94, Thailand second (92-88-63) and Vietnam third (57-49-40).
