A deluge of gold medals in a sport staged in the Southeast Asian Games for the first time fueled the Philippines’ best day in a sport so far.
The Philippines won four golds in practical shooting, courtesy of Rolly Nathaniel Tecson, Edcel John Gino, Genesis Pible and Erin Mattea Micor as the three-day competition wrapped up at the THPSA Shooting Range here on Monday.
Tecson and Micor lived up to their billing as medalists in the 2025 International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) Handgun World Shoots after topping the men’s standard individual and women’s open individual events, respectively.
Gino and Pible, meanwhile, ruled the men’s and women’s production optic individual categories.
“From the very first day up until sa last, nakaya natin maging consistent and na-minimize natin ‘yung mga errors kaya sobrang happy (From the very first day up until the last day, we were able to be consistent and minimize errors, so we are very happy),” Tecson said.
The reigning world champion in his event, Tecson garnered 1,680.7889 points to edge compatriot Kahlil Adrian Viray (1,625.2256) for the gold.
Since a country can win only one medal per event, Viray missed the podium as Thailand’s Nathawat Nokthaisong and Indonesia’s Hans Christian Pratama got silver and bronze, respectively.
The youngest in her event at 17, Micor outclassed her significantly older opponents with a score of 1,399.3154, defeating 26-year-old Sarah Ayu Tamaela of Indonesia and 36-year-old Mintra Pramote of Thailand.
“I was really surprised noong nanalo ako (when I won) since they’re older, they have a lot more experience,” said Micor, a silver medalist in the World Shoots.
Gino totaled 1,654.0344 points, while Pible registered 1,293.7900 points as they both beat their closest Thai contenders.
“Napakalaking karangalan ito para sa amin and siyempre sa buong Pilipinas. Proud na proud kami na nakakuha kami ng gold medal dito sa SEA Games (This is a great honor for us and of course for the entire Philippines. We are very proud that we won a gold medal here at the SEA Games,” Pible said.
The Philippines won a medal in all eight events as Evelyn Woods (women’s production individual) bagged a silver, while Gerard Loy (men’s open individual), Stefanie Kathrene Lee (women’s standard individual), Aeron John Lanuza (men’s production individual) contributed bronzes. (PNA)