Despite the surge of new heroes, some of the country’s best athletes fell short of their respective targets, underscoring the unforgiving and unpredictable nature of the 33rd Southeast Asian Games that are being held in Thailand.

Olympic medalist Nesthy Petecio of boxing joined fellow Olympians Kurt Barbosa of taekwondo and Kristina Knott of athletics as well as SEA Games medalists Ian Clark Bautista of boxing, Rosegie Ramos of weightlifting and the Gilas Pilipinas 3x3 teams in coming up with heartbreaking results that cost Team Philippines some precious medals in the biennial meet.

Petecio, a medalist in the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, was relegated to the bronze medal match after getting upset by Asian Games medalist Hasanah Haswatun of Indonesia via split decision in the women’s 63kg class at the Chulalongkorn University Sports Center on Saturday while Barbosa and Knott, who both represented the country in the Paris Summer Games, also made early exits in the events they were heavily expected to dominate.

The 26-year-old three-time SEA Games gold medalist suffered a semifinal loss to Nguyen Hong Trong of Vietnam in the men’s under-54-kilogram event while Knott had a forgettable performance in her pet event — the women’s 100m run — as she finished sixth with 11.71 seconds behind gold medalist Veronica Shanti Pereira of Indonesia, who clocked 11.36 seconds.

Knott is considered as the country’s sprint queen after clocking 11.27 seconds to surpass the 33-year-old record by the late Lydia de Vega-Mercado in the century dash in 2020.

Also failing to make an impact were Bautista and the Gilas 3x3 squad,

Bautista, a three-time SEA Games gold medalist, was the first boxer to go after losing to home bet Sarawut Sukthet in the men’s 57kg quarterfinals with a 5-0 decision while Ramos, a bronze medalist in the World Championships, bombed out after failing to lift on all her three clean and jerk attempts in the women’s 48kg event also on Saturday.

The Gilas squad of Ange Kouame, Joseph Eriobu, Joseph Sedurifa and Janrey Pasaol also ended up empty-handed after absorbing a heartbreaking 19-21 loss to Malaysia while their female counterparts composed of Mikka Cacho, Kaye Pingol, Reynalyn Ferrer and Jhazmin Joson made an early exit after suffering back-to-back losses to Indonesia, 15-21, and Malaysia, 19-21.

It was the first time for Gilas Men to emerge without a medal in the men’s 3x3 event. During its inaugural staging, the Filipinos won the gold medal in Manila in 2019 then the bronze medal in Hanoi in 2021 and the silver medal in Phnom Penh in 2023.