by Isabella Magno

With a total of 190 medals, the Philippines is presently ranked fifth in the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games held in Hanoi, Vietnam. The country has 43 gold, 59 silver, and 92 bronze medals on record.

Three back-to-back gold medals were presented to the country, as the Team Sibol Philippines of Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB), Hidilyn Diaz, and Shugen Nakano defended their respective titles from the previous SEA Games.

Team Sibol Philippines (Kyle Dominic “Dominic” Soto, Danerie James “Wise” Del Rosario, Salic Alauya “Hadji” Imam, Lee Howard “Owl” Gonzales, Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna, Dexter Louise Cruz “Dexstar” Alaba, and Russel Aaron “Eyon” Usi) harvested the country’s second esports gold medal with a 3-1 victory against Indonesia. 

Meanwhile, Diaz once again proved her supremacy in the international arena by winning another gold medal in the women’s 55kg weightlifting event, lifting a total of 206 kg after getting 92 kg in snatch and 114 kg in clean and jerk.

Moreover, Nakano delivered the Philippines’ second judo gold medal, defeating Vietnam’s Hoang Phuc Truong in the men’s 66kg division, after Truong ran out of time in an effort to steal the win with a last-second ippon.

Further, two silver and five bronze medals were added to the country’s overall tally after Filipino athletes rose to the podium of their respective events.

Khrizzie Pabulay of the women’s -52kg judo event and Carlo Vonn Buminaang of the men’s -65kg vovinam event both won silver medals in their respective events.

The 16-year-old tennis prodigy Alex Eala, on the other hand, had to settle for bronze at this year’s SEA Games after losing to Thai veteran Luksika Kumkhum. Mixed doubles with Treat Huey and women’s team play are the other two events in which Eala won bronze.

In chess, Janelle Mae Frayna won her second bronze medal as a woman grandmaster (WGM) after losing in the semifinals of the women’s individual blitz to Vietnam’s Pham Le Thao. Frayna had previously won bronze in women’s rapid chess with Woman International Master Marie Antoinette San Diego after scoring 0.5-1.5 versus Malaysia.

The other bronze medalists today are Marjon Piañar of men’s welterweight in boxing, and the Philippine muay thai team members Mauro Lumba in men’s combat 81kg and Fritz Biagtan in men’s combat 60kg.

Furthermore, added to the overall medal haul of the country are the bronze medals secured by several team sports: volleyball teams for both the men category (Jude Garcia, Anthony Lemuel Arbasto Jr., Alnakran Abdilla, and Jaron Requinton) and the women category (Cherry Rondina, Bernadeth Pons, Jovelyn Gonzaga, and Floremel Rodriguez), as well as the women’s team kumite (Jamie Lim, Junna Tsukii, Mae Soriano, and Lemon Misu).