National team chef de mission Ramon Fernandez (Photo from PSC Facebook page) HANOI - Halfway through the 31st Vietnam Southeast Asian Games, national team chef de mission Ramon Fernandez was optimistic that if the trend continues, the county will hit its goal of finishing third overall in the medal standings. "We are halfway through the Games, and we are in the top three of the medal standings, thank God. We are well within our target of finishing at least third overall. We just have to maintain our performance until the end," Fernandez said Tuesday. Despite limited resources and training that was hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic back home, the Filipino campaigners were putting up a gallant stand, delivering their biggest haul thus far the other day of 10 gold medals. They were in the third spot with a tally of 30 golds, 34 silvers, and 50 bronzes as of Monday night, within striking distance of No. 2 Thailand (34-35-50), while host Vietnam continued to be out of reach at the
HANOI - Carlos Yulo completed a five-gold romp while dancesport scored four rousing victories Monday as the Philippines came up with its best performance yet in the 31st Southeast Asian Games here, going on a 10-gold medal rush to stay on the coattails of Thailand in their heated battle for second overall. Yulo, 22, triumphed in the apparatus where he is the reigning world champion, dominating the vault finals and adding a surprise gold in the horizontal bars as he ended his stint here with a shot at becoming the best male athlete. After wowing the crowd at the Quan Ngua Sports Palace with a runaway victory in the vault where he scored 14.700 points, Yulo returned hours later and tied for first in the horizontal bars with Ding Phuong Thanh of Vietnam, both scoring 13.867 points. The horizonal gold was the fifth gold medal by Yulo, counting his earlier victories in the men's all-around, floor exercise, and rings, on top of silver medal finishes in the men's team event and parall