MANILA, 30 November 2005 — Philippines yesterday piled up more golds on the third day of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games, but the fresh wins were eclipsed by the crushing defeat of the host country’s football team to Malaysia.

Not even the presence of six foreign players of Filipino descent could lift the Philippines past the Malaysians, who snuffed out the host country’s dream of entering into the semifinals of the world’s most favorite sport.

The basketball-crazy Filipinos warmed up to football after the Philippine team scored a 4-2 upset against the highly favored Cambodian team last week.

The Philippines were a perennial cellar-dweller in football and has never won any games for the past 10 years, until it defeated Vietnam last week.

According to the official medal tally by organizers, the host country has hauled a total of 29 gold medals, 12 silvers and 17 bronzes for the past three days.

Among the Filipino gold winners yesterday were Arneil Ferrera in hammer throw, Nelson Pacalso in karate, Aida Yang and Vicky Ting in women’s dulian wushu and Baby Marites Bitbit in women’s cross-country cycling.

Other gold medal winners were Wassano Winatho of Thailand in women’s 400-meter hurdles, Yuan Yu Fang of Malaysia in women’s 20-kilometer walk, Phi Wai Phyo of Malaysia in men’s Gunshu wushu and Nguyen Thi My Duc of Vietnam in women’s Qiangshu wushu.

Defending champion Vietnam stayed within a striking distance of the overall crown with 17 golds, 14 silvers and 20 bronzes. Malaysia was in third place with 10 golds, 11 silvers and nine bronzes.

Powerhouses Thailand and Indonesia were trailing with seven golds, 13 silvers, 23 bronzes, and six golds, 12 silvers and 11 bronzes, respectively.

Myanmar has two golds, five silvers and six bronzes, while Singapore secured two golds, four silvers and eight bronzes.

Brunei scrounged two silvers and two bronzes, while Laos salvaged three bronzes.

Cambodia and Timor Liste have yet to win a medal in the nine-day biennial event, where in the 11 Southeast Asian countries were competing for a total of 441 gold medals. The Philippines hope to win its first ever crown in the 56-year-old SEA Games, considered as the Olympics Games in Southeast Asia. Since the first staging of the games in 1959, Thailand won the overall crown nine times, while Indonesia closely followed with eight championships.

Other winners in the competition are Myanmar in 1961 and 1969, Malaysia in 2001 and Vietnam in 2003.