BEIJING—Mary Jane Estimar, fighting numbing injuries to her ankle and shoulders, bowed to China’s Qin Lizi in an abbreviated final that broke the gallery’s heart Sunday and settled for the silver medal at the Beijing Games wushu competition here.

Estimar’s Chinese coach Liu Yufu stopped her from climbing back into the arena for the second round, giving about 4,000 fight fans at the Olympic Sports Center venue the cue to celebrate the young Filipino woman’s bravery in the 52 kg sanshou (fighting) final.

The gallery erupted into cheers when Qin, who was taller by four inches, approached and offered her hand to a sobbing Estimar and then lifted her with a bear hug for some 10 seconds.

“She (Estimar) was very brave,” Qin later told the Philippine Daily Inquirer through an interpreter. “Despite her injuries from the previous fights, she fought well and did not surrender. My heart really bled for her.”

Estimar dragged her right leg toward the referee and bowed, before teammate Benjie Rivera carried her on piggy back to the fighters’ dugout, her tears still freely flowing.

The silver-medal effort of the 25-year-old find from Dulunan Arevalo, Iloilo City, came less than 48 hours after compatriot and reigning world champion Willy Wang captured the gold in the two-event taolu (forms) competition Friday night.

Wushu is more popularly known as kung fu, the ancient Chinese martial art which has yet to gain International Olympic Committee recognition as a regular Summer Games sport.

As such, medals won at the wushu meet here do not figure in the Olympics medal tally.

Rivera and Marian Mariano earlier bagged a bronze each Saturday after falling in the men’s 56 kg and women’s 60 kg sanshou semifinals, respectively.

The 21-year-old Rivera lost to Russia’s Nazir Shandulaev, 2-0, while Mariano, who is from Baguio City like Rivera, bowed to Iran’s Zahra Karimi Vardanjani by the same score.

Estimar had no chance against Qin Lizi the moment she limped into the fight arena. She badly injured her ankle and shoulders in her last-gasp victory in the semifinals over Iran’s Farzaneh Dehghani Younarti.

Dumping medical advice, Estimar fought the taller Qin punch for punch early on but could not stop the Chinese from hurting her with sweeping kicks that felled her three times.

Changing tactics halfway through the round, the Filipino tried three times to hold on to Qin’s right leg to try and wrestle her to no avail. Estimar simply could not summon the strength that vaulted her into the gold-medal match with victories against Italy’s Ambra Vielmi and Iran’s Younarti.

“Ang plano ko sana suntok na lang ang gamitin at wrestling-in siya, pero malakas talaga yung kalaban (I planned to use punches and to wrestle her to the mat but she was very strong),” said Estimar, tears welling in her eyes. “Gusto ko po pilitin yung gold, pero pinahinto na ako ni coach (I really wanted the gold but my coach convinced me to give it up).”

The Chinese clinched the round 12 seconds to the buzzer by throwing Estimar out of the mat.