Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo gets five golds, becoming the PHL athlete with the most number of golds in 31st SEA Games

Best SEA Games showing for PHL in events hosted outside the country

(Eagle News) – The Philippines bagged 52 gold medals in the just-concluded 31st Southeast Asian Games, ranking 4th in the over-all medal tally with host country Vietnam leading the region with 205 gold medals.

This is the best SEA Games gold medal haul for the Philippines in games hosted outside the country.

The total medal haul for the Philippines in this year’s SEA Games is 226 medals – 52 gold medals, 70 silver medals, and 104 bronze medals.

Philippine boxers Ian Clark Bautista, Rogen Ladon, and Olympic medalist Eumir Marcial, as well as the Gilas women’s basketball team got four more gold medals on Sunday, May 22.

Late Sunday evening, May 22, Filipino Muay Thai athlete Philip Delarmino, was awarded first place, getting the country’s 52nd gold medal, after organizers decided that the win belonged to the Philippine athlete. Vietnam’s Nguyen Doan Long was relegated to a silver after the organizers heard the appeal by Muaythai Association of the Philippines (MAP) led by Secretary-General Pearl Managuelod.

-Host country Vietnam leads medal haul-

Host country Vietnam got 205 gold medals, 125 silver medals and 116 bronze medals, thus bagging a total of 446 medals and retaining the lead in the over-all medal tally.

Thailand is at second place with 92 golds, 103 silver medals, and 136 bronze medals, or 331 medals in all.

At third place is Indonesia with 69 gold medals, 91 silver medals, 81 bronze medals or 241 medals in total.

-5 golds for PHL on last day of games-

On Saturday, May 22, the Philippines bagged four golds: two in billiards (Rubilen Amit and Carlo Biado), and one each in basketball via a big win by the Philippine women’s team, tennis (men’s doubles – Treat Huey and Ruben Gonzales) and in weightlifting (Vanessa Sarno, women’s 71 kg).

On Friday, May 20, Philippine athletes got three golds: one in weightlifting (Hidilyn Diaz, women’s 55 kg), one in judo (Shugen Nakano, men’s 66 kg), and one in esports (Mobile Legends Bang Bang).

On Thursday, May 19, the country only got two gold medals: one each in bowling (men’s team of four – Ian Dychangco, Ivan Malig, Patrick Nuqui and Merwin Tan) and in judo (Rena Furukawa, women’s 57 kg.

On Wednesday, May 18, the country got four golds (in archery, billiards, athletics and esports). On Tuesday, May 17, Filipino athletes got four more golds ( in billiards, Muay Thai, athletics, taekwondo).

Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo is the Philippine athlete with the most number of gold medals at the just-concluded SEA Games. He got five gold medals and two silver medals.

-10 golds for PHL on May 16-

In terms of the day when the Philippines got the most medals at the competition, May 16 stood out. This was when the country got 10 gold medals — four in dance sports, two in gymnastics, and one gold each in bowling, athletics, taekwondo and swimming.

The 52 gold medal haul of the Philippines in the 31st SEA Games is still its best record for games hosted outside the country. This is however a far cry from the 149 gold medals that Philippine athletes won in the 2019 SEA Games when the Philippines was the host country.

The host country traditionally leads the medal tally.

In this year’s SEA Games, however, the Philippine men’s basketball team failed to defend their title as Gilas Pilipinas coached by Chot Reyes suffered a disappointing loss on Sunday, bowing to Indonesia. The 85-81 win for Indonesia was a big blow to the Philippines which had ruled the game for the past 33 years.

(Eagle News Service)