*Jedah Mae Soriano celebrates after winning the arnis women's padded finals against Suon Heangsela of Cambodia. (PSC/SEAG media pool)*
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—Here comes the brigade. Olympic athletes headed by Elreen Ando, Carlo Paalam and Nesthy Petecio steered Team Philippines’ gold-medal campaign on Sunday, May 14, in the 32^nd Southeast Asian Games here. Ando, a Tokyo Olympian weightlifter who moved to a lower weight class from 64kg, erased three Games records en route to winning the women’s 59kg event where she posted a 216 total – 98 kilos in snatch and 118 in clean & jerk. Her performance eclipsed all the three old marks of Vietnam’s Hoang Thi Duyen in snatch (96), clean and jerk (115) and total (210). “I want to dedicate this gold medal to my father. I finally made his dream come true,” said the 24-year-old Ando, whose father passed away last year. It was a nail-biting battle at first between Ando and Hoang in snatch, with the Vietnamese bet starting her lift at 93 kilos, only to fail. She successfully lifted on second attempt but failed on her third at 97 kilos. Ando, for her part, registered a new SEAG mark in snatch with 98 kilos on her third attempt to take the lead going to the clean and jerk. Hoang appeared to have no gas left in the tank in the clean & jerk, managing only 112 to finish with 205 for bronze. Then it was Ando’s turn, where she needed only to lift 118 kilos on her first attempt to capture the gold medal. Thailand’s Suratwadee Yodsarn finished silver with 206. At the Chroy Changvar Convention Center, Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Paalam lived up to his his billing by outgunning his Indonesian rival Aldoms Suguro to capture the men’s 54kg gold in boxing while Petecio, also a silver medalist in the Tokyo Games, crushed Indon foe Ratna Sari Devi via unanimous decision to claim the women’s -57kg. Other athletes who contributed to the day’s gold rush were boxer Paul Julyfer Bascon, who prevailed via split decision over Thailand’s Rujakran Juntrong in the men’s 60kg, Fil-Japanese judoka Rena Furukawa, who retained her women’s -57kg title after outpointing Myanmar’s Chu Nat Noe Wai, wrestler Jason Balabal (men's 82kg Greco Roman), and the esports team of Marco Requitiano, Michael Sayson, Angelo Arcangel, David Canon, Noewee Macasa and Rowgen Unigo, who won the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Mobile) Men’s event. Charlotte Tolentino (women’s full contact padded stick-bantamweight) and Jedah Mae Soriano (women’s full-contact padded stick-lightweight) also chipped in gold medals for Team PH after ruling their arnis events. With the gold rush, Team PH hiked its medal tally to 46 gold, 65 silver and 77 bronze medals as of 5:30 p.m. to overtake Singapore at fifth place, which has 42 gold, 35 silver and 51 bronze medals.