KUALA LUMPUR—The Philippines, headed by teenage sprint phenom Cielo Honasan and seasoned powerlifter Adeline Dumapong-Ancheta, rode on its eight-gold haul the day before by raking in five yesterday in the ninth Asean Para Games here.
Honasan, 15, blitzed her way to the 400m gold for T44 and T45 combined in 63.35 seconds to add to her mints in the 100m and 200m the previous days that underscored her status as the games’ queen of the tracks.
Dumapong-Ancheta, one of the Filipino Para Games pioneers, for her part, continued to cast her mammoth shadow at the powerlifting competition as she captured the over 86kg gold with a lift of 116kg.
Indonesia’s Sriyanti and Malaysia’s Sharifah Raudzah Binti were reduced to ashes by Dumapong-Ancheta’s dominating effort by 105kg and 95kg, respectively. Dumapong-Ancheta could have broken her record of 118kg but opted not to attempt anymore knowing she had achieved what she hoped for.
“I just want the gold, nothing else,” said the 43-year-old Dumapong-Ancheta, the country’s first Paralympic medal winner.
Honasan bested Thailand’s Gagun Pagjiraporn, who started out strong but fizzled in the end to settle for the silver in 66.41. Cambodian Vet Chanta took the bronze in 76.43.
Honasan, classified as T44, beat a higher classified runner in Pagjiraporn, who is a T45. It was a scintillating performance by Honasan, a polio victim who was discovered competing in the regular event of the Palarong Pambansa, as she will go home as the newest face of the nation’s Para Games campaign. Or you can call her the Lydia de Vega-Mercado of the Filipino Para athletes.
After her triumph, Honasan could only lay on her back and cried out of a combination of exhaustion and euphoria.
“I just couldn’t control my emotions, that’s why I cried,” said Honasan, who is set to receive a P150,000 for each gold she won as an incentive mandated by law.
