Philippines at the 1981 SEA Games

Philippines at the 1981 Southeast Asian Games
IOC code	PHI
NOC	Philippine Olympic Committee
Website	www.olympic.ph (in English)
in Manila
Medals Ranked 3rd	Gold 55 Silver 55 Bronze 77 Total 187
Southeast Asian Games appearances (overview)
1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023

The Philippines hosted the 11th Southeast Asian Games for the first time and held from 6 to 15 December 1981 in the city of Manila.

The Philippine contingent, from the 24 golds which they won in the 1979 games in Jakarta, came through this time with 55 golds and a third place overall finish. Gintong Alay Project Director and Philippine Olympic Committee chairman Michael Keon was jubilant over the Philippines' impressive show of strength but told the delegations gathered during the closing rites that it was never the design of the host country to dominate the 11th SEA games.

The Philippines came through with a bumper harvest of golds in cycling, winning eight of the golds disputed. The host country also grabbed eight golds in athletics -track and field and bowling. Boxing and weightlifting had six golds each. Swimming produced four gold medals, with three credited to Billy Wilson, who came home from his studies and training in the US, and one to veteran Jairulla Jaitulla.^[1]

Lydia de Vega and Isidro del Prado were the country's two double gold medal winners and were cited with more honors. De Vega was cited as best female track performer for her record-breaking performances in the 200 meters and del Prado as the best male track performer for a record-breaking performances in the 400 meters.^{[citation needed]}

It was World Champion Bong Coo of bowling, who emerged as the Philippines' most bemedalled campaigner winning four gold medals and two silver medals in six events disputed. The Filipinos were blanked in three events; archery, badminton and table tennis.