PHOTO CAPTION:
SINGAPORE– Maurice Sacho Ilustre capped his ASEAN Schools Games campaign with another gold medal in the boys’ 200m butterfly on Wednesday afternoon to emerge as the most bemedalled Filipino tanker at the Singapore Sports School with four golds.
Ilustre, a Grade 12 student at the De La Salle Zobel, clocked two minutes and 03.67 seconds to claim the gold.
The silver went to Rhys Jun Kai of Singapore (2:05.58) and the bronze to Zelmi Aryalingga Azel of Indonesia (2:06.01).
Ilustre, who also sparkled in the Palarong Pambansa last summer, bagged his fourth in this year's ASG and the 13th overall for the Team Philippines.
The star swimmer, who swept all of his seven events in last May’s Palaro in San Jose de Buenavista in Antique, said his four- week training in the US was a big factor to his performance.
“Malaking tulong talaga yung training ko sa US para mag-improve ako (My training in the US really helped me to improve),” said Ilustre, who also won the gold in the boys’ 200m freestyle, boys’ 100m backstroke and boys’ 100m butterfly.
Bhay Maitland Newberry, for her part, timed 30.95 to settle for the silver in the girls’ 50m backstroke.
Th gold went to Indonesia’s Kemala Fathihia Sofie’s, who clocked 30.47. Thailand’s Tepbud Sutatta (31.26) salvaged the bronze
Philippines Chef-De-Mission Rizalino Jose Rosales said he is satisfied with the country’s performance for having eclipsed its previous best finish of 11 golds, 14 silvers, and 22 bronze medals set in 2014.
“Nagdeliver kasi ng medals lahat ng events. Kaya satisfied ako sa lahat ng performance ng mga teams (All of the events contributed medals that’s why I’m really satisfied with our performance),” Rosales said.
As of 9 p.m. Thursday evening, the medal tally for Team Philippines stands at 13 gold, eight silver, and 21 bronze medals for sixth place overall.
Thailand is in the lead right now with 29-26-32 while Indonesia is at second with its 25-33-29.
Host country Singapore sits at the third spot with 24-27-27 while Vietnam ranks fourth with a 20-21-10 medal haul. (With PSC PR)