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Source: gmanews.tv
-- Given the well-prepared and well-funded opposition they had to contend with in the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos, the Philippine aquatics team will take their four gold medals – a dramatic drop from their previous eight-hold haul – anytime.

Philippine Aquatics Sports Association (PASA) president Mark Joseph said the outcome of the team’s performance against the better-trained competition is hardly surprising.
“Our competition was better funded than us, especially this year," said Joseph assessing the athletes’ performance a day after aquatics competitions came to a close at the National Sports Complex. “But we are not worried about the future. We have a fast growing talent pool to tap."

In all, the aquatics team finished its campaign with four golds, 10 silvers and two bronzes. All the golds were courtesy of swimming, as water polo and diving produced silver medals at best.

Water polo opened aquatics’ Laos stint, but only came up with another silver medal performance behind perennial champion Singapore, which remains unbeaten in the event since 1981.

Veteran Miguel Molina provided the sport’s first two gold medals in the 200m and 400m individual medley, but never got to duplicate his four-gold medal romp in the 2007 SEA Games when he was adjudged as the Best Male Athlete of the meet.

The 25-year-old Molina, entered in seven events in the Laos SEA Games, also hinted this might be his farewell stint in the biennial meet.

Coming through with a gold medal of their own are Molina’s fellow Olympians, Ryan Arabejo and Daniel Coakley, who won their respective events in record-breaking time. Arabejo set a new meet record in the 1,500m freestyle (15:37.75), while Coakley did the same in the 50m freestyle (22.62).

Despite having two Olympians at its disposal, the diving contingent failed to come up with a gold.

Two-time Olympian Shiela Mae Perez surrendered the gold medal to a graceful Vietnamese and the tandem of Ryan Fabriga and Jaime Asok lost to an Indonesian pair, leaving Joseph crying foul.

“Our improbable number of silvers can be explained by only one thing – unfair judging – obvious and sickening," he said, pointing to the Indonesians, Vietnamese and the Malaysians as having “conspired" to corner all of the eight gold medals at stake to set a good impression entering the 2011 Sumatra SEA Games.

Overall, the under-funded Filipino bets' lack of training and international exposure prior to the Games played a key role in their Laos campaign.

“We had too many silvers for comfort with split-second differences easily overcome if we had altitude training like our government sports council-funded competitors with deeper benches – Singapore and Malaysia," Joseph said, lamenting the lack of support from the Philippine Sports Commission, the country’s sports arm.