Jennifer Chan in action en route to the women’s compound crown at the Southeast Asian Games in Laos last Monday. (Photo by ALBERT GARCIA)

VIENTIANE, Laos — The Philippines swept the marathon events in athletics and captured the first gold medal in archery Tuesday to threaten Indonesia in fifth place in the 25th Southeast Asian Games.

Eduardo Buenavista and Jho-Ann Banayag won the first gold medals disputed for the day while archer Jennifer Chan bagged her first-ever individual gold medal at the age of 44 just before midday.

The hattrick of success lifted the Filipinos into a tie with Indonesia with 21 golds apiece, but stayed in sixth with less silver medals.

With 46 final events still in store at presstime, Thailand stayed on top with 42 golds followed by Vietnam 34, Singapore 28 and Malaysia 24.

Buenavista, the country’s premier long-distance runner, clocked 2:21:10 to crush the field, but failed to break the 12-year-old Games record of 2:20:27 owned by Indonesian Nabunome Eduardus.

Yahuza settled for the silver in 2:21:56.12 while Hem Bunting took the bronze in 2:25:19.68.

If Buenavista’s win was a breeze, Jho-An Banayag’s victory was a nail-biter.

Banayag, trailing for most part of the race, made a quick dash to the finish to edge Sunisa Sailomyen of Thailand by a fraction of a second.

She clocked 2:46:34 while Sailomyen, the 2007 winner, came in at 2:46:47. Myanmar’s Ni Lar San settled for the bronze in 2:46:54.

A few hours after the marathon victories, Chan captured the women’s compound crown left undefended by compatriot Amaya Paz.

The former recurve archer defeated Aung Ngeain of Myanmar, 115-112, in the final after blasting Narisara Tinbua of Thailand, 114-111, in the semifinals.

Ngeain was runner-up in the recent Asian championships held in Bali, Indonesia.

Another archer, Earl Benjamin Yap, was battling for a spot in the final against Indonesian nemesis Igusti Nyoman Puruhito at presstime.

In the resumption of tennis, Riza Zalameda advanced into the women’s singles semifinals following a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Huynh Phuong Trang of Vietnam.

Five more matches involving Filipinos were still have to be played.

The Filipinos were also gunning for gold medals in athletics, muay, wrestling and judo.

Henry Dagmil was set to defend his men’s long jump crown in the resumption of athletics in the afternoon while fighters Romnick Pabalate and Jonathan Polosan faced separate opponents for the gold medas in muay.

Wrestling got under way with eight gold medals at stake while judo got going with four final events.

The Philippines also had four boxers seeking berths in the finals.