SEA Games 2019 Day 9 roundup: Singapore swimmer sets meet record as Philippines make history in terms of overall medal haul

Welcome to FOX Sports Asia’s Daily Roundup of the SEA Games 2019, where will be highlighting the key events of each day at the 30th edition of the South-East Asian Games hosted by the Philippines.

Today was Day 9 of the SEA Games 2019, and it began with the Philippines winning the first-ever gold medal in the Esports event in the history of the SEA Games, beating Indonesia 3-2 in a hotly contested finale.

The feat was accomplished by the Philippines’ Mobile Legends: Bang Bang team on Sunday, who climbed their way up from the lower bracket playoffs to finish at the top of the podium in the SEA Games 2019.

ABS-CBN News reported that Kenneth Jiane “Kenji” Villa, Karl Gabriel Carlito “Ribo” Ribo, Jeniel “Haze” Bata-anon, Angelo Kyle “Pheww” Arcangel, “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno, Allan Sancio “Lusty” Castromayor, and Jason Rafael “Jay” Torculas are the individuals to do the job for the Philippines and bring home the gold medal.

In the afternoon, Indonesia star athlete and SEA Games great Maria Natalia Londa dropped a retirement hint after winning her sixth career gold medal at the SEA Games 2019.

“I have counted. This is my sixth SEA Games, and [the gold] was my [SEA Games’] 12th medal. I see my run here as my last, but I don’t know, it really depends on PASI [the Indonesian Athletics Association], though,” Maria said after her win.

Later, Singapore swimmer Amanda Lim set a new personal best for the first time in around ten years, finishing the race in 25.06 seconds, ahead of Thailand’s Jenjira Srisa-Ard (25.32 seconds) and Jasmine Alkhaldi (25.48 seconds) of the Philippines. The time set by Lim has also been declared as a SEA Games record, as she qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 as well.

After winning the gold medal, Lim said: “My previous best was 25.3 and I haven’t done a PB in like 10 years.”

“The SEA Games is always something pretty special to me. Made my first team when I was 14 years old, and here I am standing at 26 and still going for it,” she signed off.

In the evening, Philippines athlete Jamie Lim won the gold medal in Karate at the SEA Games 2019, held at the World Trade Center in Manila, the Philippines on Monday.

What makes Lim’s win all the more special, is the fact that she returned from a four-year academic break only five months ago, and the SEA Games 2019 is her first major tournament since the year 2015.

Last June, she graduated from the Philippines College of Science after finishing her degree in Mathematics, and on Monday, she defeated Indonesia’s Ceyco Zefanya, 2-1, in the finals of the women’s +61kg kumite in karate to secure what was the Philippines’ second gold medal in karate at the SEA Games 2019.

Later in the day, the Philippines also achieved a historic milestone, as they bagged their 113th and 114th gold medal at this year’s event and crossing their previous best of 112. Eventually, they also bested their own overall numbers from the SEA Games held in 2005, when they had won 290 medals in total.

At the end of Day 9, the Philippines had won 320 medals overall – including 128 gold, 93 silver and 99 bronze – in the SEA Games 2019.

The overall medals tally at the end of Day 9 is as follows:

The overall medals tally at the time of writing, was as follows: