PHNOM PENH — The Philippines scooped up six gold medals in chess Thursday in the 12th ASEAN Para Games at the Royal University here that carved the Filipinos’ historic performance in the biennial competition.

Darry Bernardo led the way by grabbing the men’s individual and team B2B3 gold with Arman Subaste and Menandro Redor to end up with a spectacular six-gold haul—the most by any Filipino here.

Cheyzer Mendoza likewise netted a couple of mints in the women’s individual and team PI with Cheryl Angot and Jean-Lee Nacita to finish with five golds and the second most bemedalled athlete by the country.

Also striking a couple of golds was Sander Severino, who bested Indonesian Maksum Firdaus to claim the individual triumphs as well as the team with Felix Aguilera and Henry Lopez.

The Filipino chessers thus wound up with 13 golds, three more than their effort last year in Surakarta, Indonesia.

“Para sa bayan at pamilya po ng team ito,” said national para chess team coach James Infiesto.

Chess’ magnificence propelled the Philippines’ best performance in the event after snaring 28 a year back in Surakarta, Indonesia.

The Philippines got its 28th gold medal from javelin thrower Andrei Kuizon in the 12th ASEAN Para Games at the Morodok Techo National Stadium here.

Kuizon, a 22-year-old Pampanga native who was plucked out of the wheelchair basketball team, took the mint after organizers decided to separate the winners of his F54 class from F34.

The reigning shot put gold winner was initially awarded the silver Wednesday with a 19.03-meter heave with Vietnamese Vivan Tung seizing the mint with a 21.33m heave.

In swimming at the Morodok Aquatics Center, Gary Bejino and Marco Tinamisan settled for a pair of silver medal finishes in the 100m freestyle S6 and S4, respectively.

Bejino, who captured two gold medals in record-breaking fashion entering the final day of pool competition, clocked a minute and 15.09 seconds in ending up behind eventual gold medalist Auyng Myint Myat of Myanmar, who timed in 1:14.90.

For Tinamisan, it was a bittersweet effort as he checked in at 1:47.45 and finished behind Vietnam’s Danh Hoa’s 1:36.23.