2nd SEA Games crown virtually in the bag

By Al S. Mendoza

AS I write this, we are ahead by a whopping 32 gold medals over Vietnam.

We are now way past the halfway mark of the 12-day Games and it will be next to impossible for Vietnam to overhaul our lead.

More so with the third-running Indonesia, whose 27 total is 36 gold medals behind the Philippines.

If it were basketball, that 36-gold deficit is like seeing the Philippines ahead by 50 points over Indonesia with two minutes left in the game.

Same with the second-running Vietnam, who also needs a miracle to wipe out the Philippines’ 32-gold medal margin with virtually a pauper’s share of mints left to be contested.

So, by all indications, we are set to capture the overall championship of the ongoing 30th SEA Games.

Only a major blow now—or an unforeseen event if you will—could derail our seemingly unstoppable march to victory come December 11, the Games’ closing ceremonies.

God must be that mad at us if He would so suddenly alter the course of history.

But we will accede if He would so decide.

Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

One good thing about several of our golden victories is that our favored athletes had won as expected.

For example, world champion Carlos Yulo won his two gymnastics golds, capping his daunting victory in the all-around event with his signature floor exercise triumph the following day.

I was right there at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum when the 4-foot-11, 19-year-old Pasay pride Yulo did his thing, electrifying an adoring crowd that suddenly found a young hero in a sport that was virtually alien to them for the longest time.

Just before the SEA Games, Yulo won the gold in the World Championship in Stuttgart, Germany, earning him a much-coveted slot to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

That made Yulo only the second Filipino to qualify in the 2020 Olympiad after pole vaulter CJ Obiena made it to the quadrennial Games early this year.

Despite being the reigning Asian Games champion and the silver medalist in the 2016 Rio Olympics, Hidilyn Diaz will still have to go through two more qualifying stages before formally making it to Tokyo next year.

Not even the Filipina’s SEA Games’ victory in her favorite 55-kg category could catapult her to Tokyo, needing to survive two stages next year to advance.

But knowing Diaz’s resolve and impeccable fighting spirit, she will make it and join Yulo to Tokyo for our country’s strongest bid yet to end our golden drought since we started participating in the Olympics in 1924 in Paris.

Meanwhile, let’s first savor the moment.

As I said, by Wednesday, December 11, we will be champs again in the SEA Games.

There were organizational lapses in the early goings but they are normal in any international sporting event.

I’ve been to so many world sportsfests, including the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and opening-day glitches can never be avoided.

The important thing is the speed by which the snafus had been addressed. 

Alan Peter Cayetano, the organizing committee chairman, and his men did well on that aspect.

And by the third day of the Games, everything was running smoothly.

As the saying goes, all’s well that ends well.

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