As Team Philippines doubled its medal haul, two Filipino-American bets broke two national records and contributed to the host country’s eight-gold tally on Day 4 of the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
James Deiparine ended a 10-year drought in Philippine swimming by taking the men’s 100-meter breaststroke crown during the start of the aquatics meet at the New Clark City pool in Capas, Tarlac.
Her efforts came as shooter Marly Martin, and her teammates in the women’s precision pistol shooting team also took golds, as did weightlifter Kristel Macrohon, obstacle course bets Kevin Jeffrey Pascual, Rochelle Suarez, and the women’s 4×100-meter relay team.
This carried the Philippines to a four-day total of 56 golds, 40 silvers, and 21 bronzes, with Vietnam taking second with its 26-31-32 tally.
Malaysia is in third (20-2-21), followed by Indonesia in fourth (17-26-21). Singapore, which is making a strong presence in fencing, has 16-11-19 gold-silver-bronze collection.
On the other hand, gymnast Carlos Yulo settled for three silver medals in the horizontal bar, parallel bar, and the vault exercises.
Because of this, the Philippines has already surpassed its total medal haul of 24-33-64 back in 2017.
The 26-year-old Deiparine tapped the touchpad in one minute, and 1.46 seconds and shattered the Philippine record for third time since 2016
The last time Deiparine did it was in July 2, 2016 when he recorded a time of 1:02.00 during the Scottish National Swimming Championships.
In doing so, Deiparine became the first Filipino swimmer to win a gold in the SEA Games since Miguel Molina, Daniel Coakley, and Ryan Arabejo won four golds in Laos in 2009.
“It feels really good to get a gold after two silvers in the last SEA Games. And this was the ultimate goal—competing at home here in the Philippines,” said Deiparine.
Thanh Bao Pham of Vietnam bagged the silver with a time of 1:01.92 while Lionel Khoo Chien Yin won the bronze (1:01.98).
Earlier, Remedy Rule earlier came close to snaring the gold in the women’s 200-meter butterfly.
But she reached the finish line by two-tents of a second to Jing Wen Quah of Singapore.
Quah clocked 2:10.97 seconds to Rule’s 2:10.99 and wrested the gold.
“It feels great. The Philippines has given me so much. I met so many people and I’m glad I could give back by winning the silver (medal),” she said.
Despite of her silver medal finish, Rule reset the 2:11.28 national clocking that she achieved in the 18th World Championships in Gwangju last July.
And this will be the fourth time that Rule has eclipsed the national mark this year.
In weightlifting, Macrohon proved her worth by ruling the women’s 71kg division, handing the Philippines its second gold medal at the end of the weightlifting competitions.
The 23-year old-Macrohon, inspired by Olympian Hidilyn Diaz’s golden triumph last Monday, had a total lift of 216kg (93kg in the snatch and 123kg in the clean and jerk) to relegate favorite Thi Van Nguyen of Vietnam to the silver.
Nguyen had a total lift of 214kg (92kg in the snatch and 122kg in the clean and jerk).
Indonesian Tsabitha Ramadan settled for the bronze medal with a total lift of 203kg.
Nguyen failed in her last attempt at 125kg in the clean and jerk, enabling Macrohon, like Diaz a native of Zamboanga City, to escape with the golden win.
“I’m so overwhelmed. I didn’t expect this because the Vietnamese lifter is really the No. 1 in the division. I thought I could only win a silver. But Hidilyn inspired me to go for the gold,” Macrohon said.
