Capas, Tarlac—Athletics officials were right on track in their projection that the Philippines will have around 12 gold medals in the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
When action ended Tuesday, the Philippines raked in 11 gold medals, eight silvers and eight bronzes.
“There were many dark horses that came, and I missed two of them. In the end, we were right on track,” said national athletics coach Jojo Posadas.
The unexpected gold medals came from javelin thrower Melvin Calano and decathlete Aries Toledo.
The 110-meter hurdles feat of Clinton Kingsley Bautista, according to Posadas, came out of nowhere.
On the final day of athletics, Toledo, who earned the region’s “greatest athlete” tag in retaining the men’s decathlon gold.
The 26-year-old Toledo accumulated 7,033 points for his second gold since after winning in 2017.
Eric Cray ended days of frustration, bucked another false start by another runner this time to retain the gold medal in the men’s 400-meter hurdles on Day 5 of the 30th Southeast Asian Games athletics meet at the New Clark City stadium here.
Cray clocked 50.21second when he reached the finish line, and his time was almost two seconds below the 49.40 second performance he had when he won it for the first time back in 2015.