Kayla Sanchez PH's most bemedalled; athletics top performing team
Published Dec 21, 2025 08:44 am
At A Glance
- BANGKOK — Kayla Sanchez, as expected, emerged the most bemedalled for Team Philippines, while the athletics team had the best haul as the 33rd Southeast Asian Games formally came to a close at the Rajamangala National Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 20.
BANGKOK — Kayla Sanchez, as expected, emerged the most bemedalled for Team Philippines, while the athletics team had the best haul as the 33rd Southeast Asian Games formally came to a close at the Rajamangala National Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 20.
The Philippine team finished with 50 golds, 73 silvers and 154 bronzes.
Sanchez made quite an impact in her first SEA Games as she led the surge for the PH tankers after copping a total of three golds and five silvers.
Her splendid showing allowed the Philippine swimming team to improve its previous medal tally of two golds, six silvers and eight bronzes from the last edition in Cambodia to three golds, nine silvers and two bronzes.
Sanchez’s teammates Heather White and Xiandi Chua were also mult-medalists with the former collecting one gold, three silvers and one bronze, while the latter added one gold and three silvers.
Aside from the eight medals, Sanchez also took the record in the 50-meter backstroke with a time of 28.47 seconds which she she set during the preliminaries.
Behind Sanchez in the individual medal haul was 19-year-old Kira Ellis who had two golds and three silvers across her name.
Her solid showing was also a big part of the triathlon team’s three golds, five silvers and two bronzes — a haul that is impressive considering the triathletes also had to deal with a bad case of food poisoning.
Led by Olympians John Cabang Tolentino and EJ Obiena, the Philippine athletics team came as the best performing team after delivering five golds, seven silvers and 19 bronzes for a total haul of 31 medals.
It was an improvement from its previous collection of four golds, 10 silvers and eight bronzes.
Tolentino not only won the gold in the men’s 110m hurdles but he also reset a 10-year-old record with a 13.66 run. Obiena, on the other hand, became the only pole vaulter to win four gold medals in the SEA Games after edging hometown bet in a thrilling showdown.
The youngster also delivered on the track with Naomi Cesar and Hussein Lorana ruling the 800m races while Hokett Delos Santos, on his first SEA Games as a decathlete, also delivered the gold.
Picking up the slack in the absence of Filipino arnisadors, who had six golds in the last edition of the SEA Games, were the shooting and modern pentathlon teams.
The Philippine shooting team hit the mark with four golds, five silvers and five bronzes while the Filipino modern pentathletes finished with three golds, three silvers and a bronze.
The PH gymnastics, despite its limited chances to win a medal, still delivered a solid collection with three golds, two silvers and seven bronzes.
Boxing and taekwondo, two sports that were a gold well for the Filipinos, drew the short end of the judges’ decision in their matches.
The PH pugs could only muster one gold, courtesy of Eumir Marcial, after enjoying four golds last edition. From a high of six in the Cambodia SEA Games, the PH jins were limited to just two golds.