HANOI. – An emotional victory by a pencak silat player for the country’s first gold medal fired up the Philippine campaign in the 31st Vietnam Southeast Asian Games here on Wednesday, a day before the biennial multi-sports festival gets going at the My Dinh National Stadium here.
Mary Francine Padios, 18, struck gold in the women’s pencak silat seni (artistic or form) tunggal single event at the Bac Tu Lien Gymnasium here, putting the Philippines on the medal table that Vietnam started to dominate.
Padios, a native of Kalibo, Aklan, improved on her silver medal finish in the 2019 Philippine Games, inspired by the misfortune that struck her dad, Jerome, just before Christmas.
“My dad has become my inspiration after he figured in a terrible car accident on her way home in Aklan just before Christmas,” said Padios, whose dad is in a coma. “He was so exhausted and drowsy from work that he slept at the wheel and met with an accident.
“He’s been motivating me ever since,” said Padios, whose score of 9.960 powered her past 2019 winner and favorite Arum Sari of Indonesia, who settled for the silver with 9.945 points.
Vietnam bolstered its bid to snatch the overall title from the Philippines, having amassed a front-running haul of six gold, five silver, and six bronze medals as of 3 p.m. (Hanoi time) on Wednesday.
Malaysia kept in step with a similar six-gold output but had less silver and bronze with one and four, respectively, followed by Indonesia (3-4-0 gold-silver-bronze), Singapore (1-3-3) and Thailand 1-2-3.
Outside of the hosts, the Malaysians and the Filipinos, no other country in the 11-member SEA Games has won gold so far.
Padios’s golden feat lit the Philippine campaign here that met some stiff winds in kurash, beach handball, football, and rowing.
Helen Aclopen accounted for a silver medal in the women’s minus 48kgs of kurash, which also came up with bronze medals courtesy of Charmea Quelino, George Baclagan and Renzo Cazeñas.
Filipino beach handball players gave Vietnam fits on Tuesday but eventually lost in a shootout 14-12, 18-12 (8-10) to settle for a silver medal that coach Joanna Franquelli said shone like gold.
