Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia—Team Philippines ended its 2018 ASEAN Schools Games campaign on Wednesday with a total of 36 medals to finish sixth overall among 10 competing countries.
The country competed in 10 out of 11 events and bagged nine golds, five medals short of the 13 it won in last year’s edition in Singapore.
The Philippine contingent will also go home with seven silvers and 20 bronze medals.
The 2018 ASEAN Schools Games ended with the host country Malaysia emerging in first place with 37 gold, 34 silver, and 32 bronze medals, while Indonesia came in second with 31 gold, 36 silver, and 30 bronze.
Thailand (19-21-31), Singapore (13-16-22), and Vietnam (13-8-6) occupied the third, fourth and fifth spots, respectively.
The athletics’ team was the best performer in the meet team as it contributed six golds, four silvers and six bronze medals in the meet held annually.
Runner Jessel Lumapas, a Grade 11 standout of Nazareth School of National University, emerged as this year’s most bemedalled athlete for the Philippines with two golds.
The 17-year-old Lumapas, Calabarzon’s sprint queen, ruled the 200m and 400m girls’ events at the Mini-Stadium of the National Sports Complex in Bukit Jalil.
The Cavite native actually gunned for her third gold medal in the 4x400m event, but fell short after Bernalyn Bejoy tripped during the passing of the Baton and failed to recover.
However, the team still managed to salvage bronze.
Philippine Chef-De-Mission Rizalino Jose Rosales said he was satisfied with this year’s results despite the Filipinos’ failure to surpass or even match the medal output last year.
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Commissioner Charles Raymond A. Maxey also lauded all Filipino athletes who competed here in Malaysia.
“I am very proud of them. They represented our country well. But, there will always be winners as well as losers in any sport,” Maxey said.
Medalists received incentives from the Department of Education. Next year’s edition of the ASG will be held in Semarang, Indonesia.