Kristina Knott, EJ Obiena break SEA Games marks

By Nick Giongco

CAPAS, Tarlac—Host Philippines maintained its fiery form Saturday when 12 sports contributed 17 gold medals to its soaring tally in the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

Starring athletics bets EJ Obiena of pole vault and Kristina Knott in sprint, the Philippines likewise drew golden performances from Jocelyn Ninobla, Rodolfo Reyes Jr., Jordan Dominguez in taekwondo (poomsae), Troy Tayong in sailing, Cris Nievarez and the women’s lightweight double sculls in rowing, Hermie Macaranas in canoe-kayak, Daniela Reggie Dela Pisa in gymnastics, Noelle Manalac in soft tennis, Francis Casey Alcantara and Jeson Patrombon in tennis, the women’s epee team in fencing, Marge Didal in skateboarding, Junna Tsukii in karatedo and Chezka Centeno in billiards.

As of 10:30 pm, the Philippines remains on top with an 89-67-65 production followed by Indonesia with 50-49-58 and Vietnam, 45-50-64. Thailand is now in the top five with 41-55-60 and Singapore at fifth with 37-30-41.

But the day simply belonged to the Fil-Am Knott and homegrown talent and Italy-based Obiena.

Just hours after resetting the SEAG record with a 23.07 run in the morning heats of the 200-meter dash, Knott erased her own mark in the late-afternoon sessions at the New Clark City Athletics Stadium with a 23.01 clocking in winning the gold medal.

Vietnamese defending champion Tu Chin Le placed second with a time of 23.45 while third went to Veronica Shanti of Singapore with a 23.77 effort.

Before Saturday’s events, the record belonged to Fil-Canadian Zion Corrales-Nelson, whose 23.32 last April in California, reset the 33-year-old mark of Lydia De Vega in 1986.

Even the SEAG 23.30 record by Thailand’s Supavadee Khawpeag set in the 2001 SEAG in Kuala Lumpur was broken as well by Knott, a 24-year-old speedster from Orlando, Florida.

Still, Knott wasn’t fully satisfied with her dazzling display, adding it would have been memorable if she did 22.80, the Olympic standard.

Obiena, the 6-2 University of Santo Tomas Engineering student, hardly flexed his muscles in shattering the 5.35 meter record of Porranot Purahong of Thailand that was established in the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEAG.

Obiena, who became the first Filipino qualifier to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when he leapt 5.80 meters in Europe last September, did 5.45 in winning his first SEAG gold.

“Finally, I am happy that I finally got the gold. I really wanted to jump more. The record was just a blessing,” said Obiena.

“I am not really happy with the height but I am happy on how I executed everything,” said Obiena, who sustained an injury during the runup to the 2017 edition.

The deposed Thai champ could only do 5.20 while Malaysian Alwi Iskandar did 5.00 for third.

Didal, the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games gold medalist, took her second gold, this time, in the street skateboarding after winning in the Game of SKATE a few days ago in Metro Manila.

Boxing took a much-needed break and will resume Sunday with key semifinal bouts as the remaining bets of the Philippine team aim to make it all the way to the gold medal bouts following the exit of light-heavyweight John Marvin and bantam Ian Clark Bautista in the men’s and Aira Villegas in the women’s.

Competitions will run until the early morning of Wednesday before the closing rites in the evening.

Vietnam will be the 2021 host of the SEAG with the capital city of Hanoi as the main hub.

Source: Manila Bulletin