The 31st Southeast Asian Games ended Sunday, with the Philippines finishing in fourth place and winning 52 gold, 70 silver, and 104 bronze medals. There were the usual expected victories, such as Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz and bronze medalist Eumir Marcial stamping their class on the competition. There were also the unexpected losses, like Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Nesthy Petecio losing in the semifinals of her women's boxing division to an unheralded local fighter. There was, of course, the massive upset of Gilas Pilipinas losing the men's 5x5 basketball gold to Indonesia.
In another class were those athletes who exceeded expectations and delivered for Team Philippines. Here is a look at five medals wins and the athletes who surprised at the 31st SEA Games.
Vanessa Sarno
Heir apparent to Diaz, the 18-year-old Sarno shattered three SEA Games records on her way to capturing the gold medal in the women's 71kg division. Sarno was making her first appearance in the SEA Games, but she performed like a veteran, blowing away the competition with a total lift of 239kg, 17 kg more than the silver medalist. Sarno set records in the snatch, clean and jerk and total lift and should be a regular at the podium for years to come.
Women's football
There were tempered expectations for the Filipinas, as the national women's football team is now called, even after they qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup in dramatic fashion earlier this year. The absence of striker Chandler McDaniel and midfielder Katrina Giullou, key players in the WWC qualifying run, meant the Filipinas faced an uphill climb to the podium. They made it to the semifinals, where they suffered a stinging 3-0 loss to Thailand. In the bronze medal match, Myanmar took an early 1-0 lead and looked headed for the victory. But late goals by Sarina Bolden and Quinly Quezada secured the bronze medal for the Philippines, the country's first SEA Games football medal in 37 years.
Merwin Tan
The Philippines once dominated bowling in Southeast Asia, thanks largely to former world champions Paeng Nepomuceno and Bong Coo. But over the past decade, the Filipino bowlers' medal haul at the Southeast Asian Games has been thin: two bronzes in 2015, a single bronze in 2017, and a silver and a bronze in 2019. Then along came Merwin Tan, the Bowling World Cup veteran who had yet to break through in the SEA Games. Tan bagged the men's singles gold, the country's first bowling gold medal in 11 years, and also led the men's team of four to another gold medal. Overall the Philippines finished with a 2-1-0 medal count in bowling, good enough for second place.
Chloe Isleta
The 23-year-old Isleta ruled the women's 200m backstroke with a time of 2:18.60 -- more than a second faster than the silver medalist -- for the Philippine contingent's first swimming gold of the Hanoi Games. It was also the Philippines' first SEAG gold medal in women's swimming since 1993, when current PSC Commissioner Akiko Thompson-Guevara won two golds in Singapore. Isleta would later add a silver medal in the 100m backstroke to go home with a two-medal haul.
Gilas Women
The Philippines began the Hanoi Games as defending champions in four basketball events. At the end of the competition, only the women's 5x5 team managed to hang on to their gold medals, even though they weren't favored to do so. The absence of 6-foot-5 Jack Animam, the country's best women's player who tore her ACL earlier this year while playing professionally in Serbia, left a hole in the lineup on both ends of the floor. With Clare Castro remaining as the sole center, coach Patrick Aquino went to a small ball, high-octane mix that posted a 4-1 record and averaged an astounding 97.8ppg. Led by Afril Bernardino, Khate Castillo and Janine Pontejos, Gilas Women posted an average winning margin of 17.4 points over five games. The gold surely would have been sweeter if it weren't for a loss to Malaysia in a no-bearing game on the last day of competition, but at the end of the day Gilas Women still won their second straight SEA Games gold.