Antonio Asistio walks in front a scoreboard which shows the Philippines in fourth spot in the men’s team competition of the Southeast Asian Games in Laos. (Albert Garcia)

VIENTIANE, Laos — Laos won the first two events in wushu Sunday to overtake the Philippines in the 25th Southeast Asian Games, halfway through the day’s proceedings.

The host country topped the women’s duilian and men’s duilian events to bring its total to 10 golds and climb to sixth place, just four behind fifth-running Indonesia.

Thailand and Vietnam have 22 golds apiece followed by Singapore 19 and Malaysia 16.

The Philippines, however, is expected to strike gold in athletics and swimming later in the day.

At midday, the Filipinos stayed stuck with eight golds, the last coming almost close to midnight Saturday when they beat Thailand in the men’s team final in tennis at center court of the National Sports Complex.

The late gold helped the Philippines retain sixth spot Saturday.

Fil-Americans Cecil Mamiit and Treat Huey administered the first defeat of Thai twins Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, saving one matchpoint before dominating the tiebreak.

Treat Huey earlier won the first singles against Kittiphong Wachiramanowong, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6, but Asian Games champion Danai Udomchoke equalized for Thailand against Mamiit,
4-6, 2-6.

At the start of tennis singles, Denise Dy made short work of Cambodia’s Cheng Sreypich, 6-0, 6-1, to reach the quarterfinals.

The tandem of Johnny Arcilla and Patrick Tierro was set to play Bui Tri Nguyen and Hoang Thanh Trung of Vietnam later in the day.

A total of 44 gold medals are at stake Sunday, including six in swimming where the Filipinos are defending two events.

Fil-American Daniel Coakley, the 2007 winner, clocked 22.89 seconds to top the 50-meter freestyle qualifying with teammate kendrick Uy coming in third in his heat in 23.74 seconds.

Ryan Arabejo hopes to bounce back from two defeats in his favorite 1,500-meter freestyle, swimming's version of the marathon.

In athletics, Arniel Ferrera was set to defend his hammer throw crown in one of seven final events at the National Stadium.

Junrey Bano sees action in the men’s 400-meter hurdles while Julius Sermona makes his bid in the 5,000-meter run.

Eliezer Sunang competes in men’s shot put, Joebert Delicano takes part in the men’s triple jump and Rosie Villarito aims for the gold in women’s javelin.

The rest of the gold medals are distributed in badminton (2), cycling (2), diving (3), pencak silat (4), petanque (3), shooting (4), shuttlecock (2), table tennis (1) and weightlifting (4) and wushu (4).

Over at the SEA Games Golf Club, the Philippines was battling to keep pace with front-running Thailand in both the men’s and women’s event of golf.

Boxing resumes with light flyweight Harry Tañamor, the lone Filipino fighter in action, taking on Myanmar’s Htet Aung in the second of 10 bouts set for the day.

In archery, Jennifer Chan placed second in the women’s individual compound qualifying with 686 points, just 10 points behind Myanmar’s Aung Ngeain.

Mark Javier finished eighth in the men’s individual recurve qualifying with 633 points.