A battle-scarred swimming duo, a tested thrower, and a glory-seeking powerlifter put on a magnificent show to fuel the Philippines’ early gold rush in the 12th ASEAN Para Games at different venues in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Sunday.
Paralympians Gary Bejino and Ernie Gawilan delivered the country’s first two gold medals, with the former reigning supreme in the men’s 400-meter freestyle S6 in five minutes and 38.26 seconds, and the latter in the 400m freestyle S7, where he timed in at 4:58.78.
It was a record-breaking effort for the 27-year-old Bejino as he shattered the old mark of 6:07.99 set by Aung Myint Myat of Myanmar, who saw action here but wound up with silver in 6:04.17, six years ago in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“Masaya tayo dahil una tayo na nakabigay ng unang ginto sa bansa natin,” said Bejino, a Tabaco, Albay native who is also scheduled to compete in the 200m, 100m, and 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly, and 4x100m medley relay, where he and Gawilan lead the squad.
Angel Otom sniped the 50m backstroke S5 mint.
Cendy Asusano, for her part, dominated the training field at the Morodok Techno National Stadium and seized the gold in the women’s shot put F54, where she heaved 5.77m, besting Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thuy and another Philippine bet Marites Burce, who took silver and bronze with distances of 5.48m and 4.84m, respectively.
The 33-year-old Asusano vowed to add two more golds in javelin today and discus throw on Wednesday.
“Tinatarget ko po three gold,” said Asusano, who has already won a total of six gold medals, including three in Kuala Lumpur in 2017 and two last year in Surakarta, Indonesia.
Over at the National Paralympic Committee Hall, Marydol Pamati-an finally hit it big after a long search and struck gold in the women’s 41-kilogram division.
She could have snatched a second one but settled for silver after losing via tiebreak to Indonesian Eneng Paridah, even though they both had the best lift of 75kg. Achelle Guion, a Paralympic veteran, chipped in a couple of silver medals in the women’s 45kg division.
Also at the pool, Ariel Joseph Alegarbes, the flag-bearer and a triple gold medalist in Surakarta, pocketed silver in the 100m breaststroke SB14 with a time of 1:13.59.
Malaysian Mohd Adib Igbal Abdullah captured the gold in 1:09.54, while Singapore’s Darren Wei Siang Chan won the bronze in 1:18.82.
In chess at the Royal University, Sander Severino and the extraordinary Filipino woodpushers continued to inch closer to gold as they led in three of the six classes in rapid.
Severino, who aims to equal, if not improve, on his quadruple-gold haul from last time, drew with fellow FIDE Master Maksum Firdaus of Indonesia to share the lead in the men’s PI class with countryman Henry Lopez, a winner over teammate Jasper Rom, with 3.5 points apiece after four rounds in this six-round meet.
Also in gold contention were Cheyzer Crystal Mendoza, who currently leads the women’s PI division with 3.5 points.
Darry Bernardo bagged two golds, ruling in men’s individual rapid chess B2B3 and team with Menandro Redor and Israel Peligro.
