THREE sports superstars who hailed from Olongapo City brought home gold and silver medals from the 2017 Southeast Asian Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on August 15 to 30.

Filipino-American track and field athlete Eric Shauwn Brazas Cray emerged the men’s 400-meter hurdles champion in the 29^th Southeast Asian Games after engaging Vietnamese challenger Quach Cong Lich in thrilling photo finish.

Cray, who hails from Olongapo but lives in Texas, clocked 50.03 seconds versus Quach’s 50.05. Still Cray’s performance was way below the 49.40 SEA Games record that he set in the 2015 Singapore SEA Games.

The local hero, however, faltered in the men’s 100-meter dash which he also topped in 2015, and settled for silver with a time of 10.43 after Malaysia’s Khairul Jantan, who clocked 10.38 seconds.

Meanwhile, taekwondo jinn Samuel Morrison avenged the controversial loss of one of his teammates in the Philippine taekwondo team to win gold for the country.

Morrison, who was born in Olongapo City, said he felt challenged after Arven Alcantara, a SEA Games rookie, lost in a highly disputed men’s -68kg finals to Malaysian jin Rozaimi bin Rozali.

Morrison later won, 28-18. He dedicated his victory to Alcantara and to his grandmother, Rosario Barias, who died of a stroke last year.

Another local star, John Leerams Chicano, picked up silver in the swim-bike-run event, closely following compatriot Nikko Huelgas for the Philippines to dominate the men’s triathlon event in this year’s SEA Games.

Chicano clocked in four minutes later after Huelgas scored his second SEA Games gold with a time of one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds.

Meanwhile, another local young athlete became champion in an international sports competition.

Eight-year old Akian Manalad Tuazon, a student of Quiz Bee School in the Subic Bay Freeport, won two gold medals in the recently concluded 11^th World Taekwondo Expo held in South Korea.

The boy’s father, Normal Tuazon, said that they would donate half of his cash winnings amounting to P20,000, as well as assorted sports gears, to the city to further support the local sports community.