17 June 2015. The Philippines concluded its participation in the recently-held 28th Southeast Asian Games (28th SEA Games) with a haul of twenty-nine gold, 36 silver and 66 bronze medals or a total of 131 medals.
With a final standing behind Indonesia at 6th place, the PHL contingent improved its place in the rankings by one step compared to the 27th SEA Games held in Myanmar. Notably, the Filipinos went home with 30 more medals although with the same number of gold as in 2013. The finals of the men’s basketball team between the Philippines and Indonesia, which the former won, capped the high-octane spirit of the games.
All throughout the competition, the Philippine Embassy in Singapore headed by Ambassador Antonio A. Morales, extended its full support to the PHL delegation headed by the Chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission Ricardo Garcia and PHL SEA Games National Organizing Committee Chef de Mission Julian Camacho.
It is noteworthy that the Filipino community has likewise extended both moral and material support to the players whenever possible in spite of constraints in getting tickets to the venues due largely to the gigantic popularity of the regional sports competition.
The team of host country Singapore valiantly stood its ground against teams from bigger countries but eventually settled for second place behind top seed Thailand. Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Brunei Darussalam and special guest Timor Leste completed the cast.
Singapore’s successful hosting of the games under the leadership of Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan Jin, Singapore National Organizing Committee President, and Minister for Community, Culture and Youth Lawrence Wong, Chairman of the 28th SEA Games Steering Committee, is recognized for the quality of the venues and facilities and for the efficiency of the organization that supported the different teams all throughout their stay in Singapore.
In last night’s closing ceremony, Minister Tan and Minister Wong thanked the more than 17,000 volunteers who contributed to the success of the games as well as the athletes for their passion and sportsmanship and the fans for keeping the morale of their teams high.
In a symbolic end to the Philippine campaign, Ambassador Antonio A. Morales sent off PSC Chairman Garcia as the latter departed for Manila today, 17 June 2015.
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