Gabe Dinette ensured that the Philippine wrestling team would leave the Southeast Asian Games with a gold medal for the second consecutive edition, following a dominant four-match sweep in the men’s freestyle 86 kg division on Friday at the Pacific Park Shopping Center Sriracha in Chonburi, Thailand.
The 26-year-old mechanical engineer outclassed hometown favorite Chiranuwat Chamnanjan, 4–0, in his third consecutive win, putting him within reach of the gold with just one match remaining.
Then the NCAA Division I wrestler, a product of Stanford University and Duke University, replicated the same dominant performance against Singapore’s Weng Luen Gary Chow and completed his four-match romp en route to a debut SEA Games gold.
Dinette had long dreamed of representing the Philippines. He realized that ambition after his impressive double-gold performance at the 2025 Philippine Wrestling National Championships, organized by the Wrestling Association of the Philippines, where he won in the same freestyle 86 kg event and in the men’s Greco-Roman 82 kg division.
Dinette’s gold led today’s medal haul, which also included two silvers from fellow NCAA standout Hayden Tyler Ancheta (San Francisco State, D2) in the men’s freestyle 57 kg, and 2023 Games champion Ronil Tubog in the men’s freestyle 65 kg.
Additional silvers came from Arian Carpio in the women’s 62 kg and Aliah Rose Gavalez in the women’s 50 kg, while Rea Cervantes added a bronze in the women’s 53 kg, completing the freestyle wrestling tally.
Meanwhile, Jason Baucas in the men’s Greco-Roman 77 kg and Callum Roberts in the men’s Greco-Roman 97 kg rounded out the medals for the Filipino wrestlers.
