SUNDAY, 14 NOVEMBER 2010 00:00 WRITTEN BY GOLD STAR DAILY
FOUR youngsters composing the Philippine chess team to the recently concluded 4th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Primary School Sport Olympiad (APSSO) in Grand Sajid, Jakarta, Indonesia came home with five gold medals.
Dubbed the "Mighty Four," chess players Marie Antoinette San Diego, Daryl Unix Samantila, Rhal Sol Cruz, Jr. and Stephen Rome Pangilinan performed splendidly despite the highly competitive international tournament at the Jaya Hotel from Nov. 4 to 10. Girl chesser San Diego of Dasmarinas, Cavite was awarded a gold medal in the girls' individual standard, a silver medal in girls' individual rapid and another silver in girls' individual blitz (exhibition event).
Adamson University's sixth grader Daryl Unix Samantila, who hails from Malabon, also brought home a silver medal in the boys' individual blitz (exhibition event). The combined 10 points output of Samantila, Sol Cruz Jr. and Pangilinan was enough to secure a team bronze medal for the Philippines in boys' team blitz competition.
Rhal Sol Cruz Jr. is a grade 7 pupil of La Salle Greenhills and a consistent gold medalist in the Philippine Athletic Youth Association and Private Schools Athletic Development Association midgets division chess leagues. Stephen Rome Pangilinan of San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, who is the youngest APSSO athlete participant at eight years old, helped the Filipinos' campaign by playing well.
The Filipino contingent was led by Rosa Ligaya Domingo and Feliciano Toledo of the Department of Education.They were overjoyed with the results because it's the first time after four years that the Philippines won a gold medal in APSSO.
"It is a great feeling of hearing our national anthem played in the awarding ceremonies on a foreign land," said Domingo. The Philippines also participated in athletics, badminton, football and table tennis events. It was only in chess that the country garnered medals in the 4TH APSSO. pna
A version of this article appeared in print on Nov 15, 2010 Monday.
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