By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
TEAM Philippines had a five-gold medal day yesterday with the sports of boxing, lawn bowls, ice hockey and track & field chipping in their share to the country’s total haul midway into the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Boxers Marvin John Tupas and Eumir Felix Marcial won the top hardware in the light-heavyweight and middleweight divisions, respectively, while the Philippine men’s lawn bowls squad won its event earlier in the day.
Providing gold medals late were the Philippine hockey team and sprinter Anthony Beram to push the country’s total gold medal tally to 15 as of 9:30 p.m. last night.
Making his first SEA Games tour of duty for the Philippines, Filipino-British Tupas did not disappoint as he threw his name in the mix of athletes to watch out for in the years to come with an impressive showing in the finals of the 81-kilogram weight class.
Mr. Tupas, 24, hardly broke a sweat against Malaysian opponent Adli Hafidz Bin Mohd Pauzi, whom he stopped in just less than a minute in the opening round.
The Filipino-Brit boxer, who traces his roots with a Filipino mother to Pampanga, landed a big right straight into the face of his Malaysian foe in the first eight seconds before unloading a barrage of body punches with more than two minutes left to claim the gold medal.
“I didn’t expect the fight to end this soon,” said Mr. Tupas, a member of the British army, said after his quick win.
“It was so good to win my first gold medal for the country,” he added.
Teammate Marcial also had it sensational albeit needing to dig deep and buck a painful left hand in the process.
Veteran Marcial worked hard for three rounds before securing a unanimous decision victory over Pathomsak Kuttiya of Thailand in the middleweight class.
Despite laboring through a painful left hand, Mr. Marcial went all out to get the better of his Thai opponent and clinch his first gold medal since ruling the welterweight class in the Singapore SEA Games in 2007.
“I really wanted to knock him out to avenge the setback of [my teammates] Carlo (Paalam) and Ian Clark (Bautista),” said Mr. Marcial. “But I couldn’t punch my left hand. I just tried to fight through the pain because boxing is our life.”
The two-gold medal finish of the boxing team is in addition to the silver won by Mario Fernandez in bantamweight and the bronze medals of Olympian Charly Suarez and Mr. Bautista in light flyweight and flyweight, respectively. Mr. Paalam failed to win any hardware.
LAWN BOWLS
In men’s lawn bowls, the Filipino quartet of Emmanuel Protacio, Ronald Lising, Leoncio Carreon and Cuarte Robert Guari edged heavyweight Malaysia, 16-14, in the finals to clinch the gold medal in their its first SEA Games action since 2007.
Also making good in its SEA Games debut for the Philippines was the hockey team, which survived a gallant fight back by Thailand, 5-4.
Fondly referred to as the Philippines’ version of the “Mighty Ducks,” off the popular movie, the country’s ice hockey team led early in the match only to find itself greatly challenge by the Thais as the game progressed.
It would stay composed and unrelenting as it was pushed to the wall en route to the history-making first SEA Games ice hockey gold.
Prior advancing to the final game, the Philippines had to survive in the semifinals against Malaysia, winning via shootout, 2-1.
Track athlete Beram, meanwhile, added the 400m run gold to his 200m run gold medal the previous day to become the country’s first double gold medallist in this year’s edition of the Games.
In winning the 400m event, the Filipino-American Beram turned in a time of 46.39 seconds.