SINGAPORE—Triathlete Nikko Huelgas and wushu artist Daniel Parantac came through with golden feats along with the celebrated Philippine Volcanoes and the billiards team to fuel the Philippine medal machine Sunday in the 28th Southeast Asian Games here.
Huelgas, a 23-year-old commercial model, began the day with a gold medal in men’s triathlon after stamping his class on the rain-soaked course at the East Coast Park here in two hours, four minutes and 32 seconds that completed a sweep for the country in the swim-bike-run race.
Fellow triathlete Claire Adorna seized the first gold for the Filipinos in the women’s side the other day.
By midday, it was turn of the handsome Parantac to shine, tallying 9.71 points in the men’s optional taijijian to redeem himself from a controversial silver finish with Norlence Catolico and John Keithley Chan in the duel weapons event held at the Expo Hall.
Over at the Coa Chu Kang Stadium, the Volcanoes erupted with a 24-7 win over Malaysia in men’s rugby 7s, an improvement from their silver performance in 2007 Thailand to stake claim as the best in the region.
Jake Letts, Patrice Olivier, Justin Coveney, Matt Saunders and Alex Aronson came up with a series of tries and goal conversions in the first 12 minutes as the Filipino-foreign dominated squad zoomed to a 17-0 lead and never looked back.
Carlo Biado and Warren Kiamco added another gold in men’s 9-ball doubles, holding off a furious rally by Vietnam’s Do Hoang Quan and Anh Tuan Nguyen to prevail, 9-6, at the OCBC Arena Hall 4.
Counting Adorna’s exploits, the Philippines increased its collection to five gold, six silver and 11 bronze medals but dropped one notch down at seventh after Myanmar surged with victories in sepak takraw, canoeing, traditional boat race and wushu.
Singapore continued to charge up the medal standings with 21 gold, 16 silver and 29 bronzes built around successive triumphs in aquatics, fencing, shooting and table tennis.
Now running second is Vietnam, which overtook Thailand with a 16-5-17 tally followed by the defending champion Thais (15-19-20), Indonesia (9-10-11), Malaysia (7-14-14) and Myanmar (6-5-7). /inquirer
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