BEIJING—Hers is a story of perseverance and sacrifice.

Mary Jane Estimar was deep in training elsewhere in China last May when the tragic news was relayed to her.

The wushu fighter’s beloved father had died at home in Iloilo City, leaving the family rudderless. Could she fly home and help arrange her father’s funeral?

Mary Jane, 25, was so devastated she edged toward hopeless despair.

The Beijing Olympics was less than three months away and she and her three teammates were in the homestretch of their preparation.

Perhaps the national wushu federation could give her a furlough?

“Her father’s death was a blow to the team because Mary Jane’s already a part of our wushu family,” recalled Francis Chan, chair of the national wushu federation. “But we were also worried that if we let her go home, her training would suffer.”

Chan, a garments businessman, did the next best thing. He let Mary Jane burn the lines to her mother and siblings in Dulunan Arevalo, Iloilo City, and raised money to defray the funeral expenses.

Next he talked Mary Jane into rebuilding her focus.

It took time but the obedient daughter put the memories of her father behind, temporarily, until she could find time to visit his grave once this was over.

But the heart, according to Mary Jane, is weaker than the mind.

When she scraped past Italy’s Ambra Vielmi, 2-1, in her first match last Friday, it was the fierce Ilongga who cried as she stepped out of the mat.

She cried silently again after she scored in the final seconds to pip Iran’s Farzaneh Dehghani Younarti in a cruel semifinal to assure herself of at least a silver in the 52 kg sanshou final.

“Naalala ko si tatay (I remembered my father),” said the youngest of five siblings. “Bawat panalo ko, inialay ko sa kanya. Yun na lang ang maibabawi ko sa hindi ko pag-uwi nung nawala siya (I dedicated all my victories to him. That’s the least I can do to make up for my absence when he died).

It was all the more heart-rending when Mary Jane, now the family’s bread-winner, decided to fight in the finals despite badly injuring her ankle and overstressing her shoulder muscles in her previous fight.

Outfought in the first round of the gold-medal match by a healthier Chinese foe four inches taller than her, a limping, badly beat Mary Jane was ready to resume fighting when her Chinese coach threw in the towel.

Her foe, Qin Lizi, embraced her warmly for so long that she felt the rush of emotions drown her heart.

As she sobbed silently again and rode the back of teammate Benjie Rivera to the dugout, what had been a highly partisan gallery erupted into applause for her.

Mary Jane now plans to go home to Iloilo to be with her family. Maybe then, she could go straight to the cemetery to offer her silver medal to her father.

He would be proud.