Finnegan, jiujitsu bets lift PH to more SEA Games golds

Gymnast Aleah Finnegan and jiujitsu standouts Kimberly Custodio and Dean Roxas boosted the Philippines’ gold-medal tally on Thursday at the 2025 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, adding to a strong showing across multiple sports.

Finnegan captured the women’s vault gold after a review and re-computation initiated by Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Abraham Tolentino. The Olympian had initially been left off the top spot before the scoring correction confirmed her victory.

Custodio delivered another gold by defeating her Thai opponent in the jiujitsu ne-waza women’s 49kg final, while Roxas secured the men’s 85kg jiujitsu title to complete a two-gold haul for the sport.

Olympic swimmer Kayla Sanchez added two silver medals in the women’s 50m backstroke and 200m freestyle events, complementing her gold from the 4x100m freestyle relay the previous day.

Haylee Garcia bagged silver in the women’s uneven bars, while Clarence Sarza fell to Thailand’s Patcharakan Poolkerd to finish with silver in the women’s 46kg division. Yman Xavier Baluyo also took silver after losing to Dinh Tung Dang of Vietnam in the men’s 69kg jiujitsu ne-waza finals.

Justin Ace de Leon contributed two bronzes in gymnastics, placing in both the men’s rings and men’s floor exercise events.

Combat sports produced the bulk of Thursday’s medal output, with bronzes from Marc Alexander Lim (jiujitsu ne-waza men’s 69kg), Vito Luzuriaga (jiujitsu ne-waza men’s 85kg), Felix Calipusan, Jeremy Nopre, and Jordan Macalipay (karate kata men’s team), Baby Jhen Buzon and Mariane Mariano (jiujitsu duo classic women’s team), Kurt Barbosa (taekwondo men’s under-54kg), Kaila Napolis (jiujitsu ne-waza women’s 48kg), and Leah Jhane and Ma. Jeanalane Lopez (judo women’s ju-no-kata).

Additional bronze medals came from Mark Louwel Valderama in the men’s cross-country eliminator, the open wakeboard team of Mark Griffin, Eva Dela Torre, Frenchesca Coo, and Derek Hewitt, and Susan Ramadan in the women’s 1500m run.

Demo sport mixed martial arts also added to the tally, with Geli Bulaong taking gold in the modern 60kg category. Bronze medals went to Gina Araos (special value modern 54kg), Jean Claude Saclag (men’s modern 65kg), Denzel John Alipio (men’s modern 60kg), and Giezel Daya (women’s traditional 54kg).

In team sports, the Philippine Women’s National Football Team clinched a semifinal berth after routing Malaysia, 6–0, while Gilas Pilipinas 3×3 Men failed to reach the podium for the first time after a narrow 21–19 loss to Malaysia in the bronze-medal match.

PH captures SEA Games baseball gold

The Philippines continued its dominant run by beating Thailand, 5–3, in the baseball finals on Friday, completing a sweep of all its matches in the tournament.

The team earlier defeated Indonesia (14–0), Singapore (17–3), Malaysia (21–0), Vietnam (20–1), Thailand (8–7), and Lao PDR (15–4) during the preliminary round.

The gold marks the country’s sixth top finish in the ongoing Games, following victories by Justin Macario (taekwondo); swimmers Kayla Sanchez, Xiandi Chua, Chloe Isleta, and Heather White; Kimberly Custodio and Dean Roxas (jiujitsu); and Aleah Finnegan (gymnastics).

It is also Philippine baseball’s third consecutive and fourth overall SEA Games gold, having won in every edition where the sport was included except in 2007, when the team settled for silver.