Vietnamese, Philippine Athletes Dominate SEAG Athletics

December 9, 2007 7:22 a.m. EST

Korat, Thailand (AHN) - Track and field athletes from Vietnam and the Philippines dominated the t the SEA Games, gathering seven gold medals and broke old records here Saturday.

Vietnam took four gold medals for the men's and women's 800 meters, the men's decathlon and the women's high jump.

The Philippines gathered three golds, with the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, the women's long jump and the men's hammer thanks to Arniel Ferrera's record-breaking throw.

Ferrera broke his own Sea Games record of 60.47 meters with a throw of 60.98m, reports from the Agence France Press said.

While Vietnam's Hanh Truong Thanh sett a new mark of 2:02.39 minutes in the women's 800m.

In the men's decathlon, Vietnam's Van Huyen Vu scored a total of 7457 points and marked a new record.

"It was very difficult, they gave me a good fight," the 28-year-old Ferrera said in a Channel News Asia report.

In other athletic tournaments, team Malaysia took the men's 4x400m relay gold and Thailand won the women's race. The Philippines' Marestella Torres won the long jump, leaping 6.31m besting out rivals from Thailand. The women's discus was won by Indonesia's Dwi Ratanawati, who threw 50.05m. On the first day of the athletics competition Friday, the host nation won six track-and-field gold out of nine. Five SEA Games records were also set, including in the men's 100m. Eleven nations are chasing more than 470 gold medals at the 24th SEA Games in more than 40 sports events. Participating countries include Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.