NAYPYITAW, Myanmar—Wushu warriors Jessie Aligaga and Dembert Arcita once ruled the worlds. Conquering the Southeast Asian Games for them should come as no surprise.
The hardened sanda fighters snagged the country’s first two gold medals yesterday, fueling the Philippine medal machine two days before actual competitions unfold at Wunna Theikdi Stadium here.
Divine Wally (48kg) and Evita Zamora (56kg), both lady sanda specialists, settled for silver medals along with wrestler Margarito Angana to replicate the feat of taolu performers Daniel Parantac, John Keithley Chan and Norlenz Ardee Catolico (duilian men’s team) earlier.
Also assured of a silver was Nesthy Petecio, who toppled a familiar rival in Tassamalee Tsongjan, 40-36, to forge a gold-medal showdown with Myanmar’s Nwe Ni Oo in the women’s featherweight division of boxing on Thursday.
Aligaga, who placed second in the 48kg men’s sanshou during the 2013 wushu world championships in Kuala Lumpur, beat Indonesia’s Dasmantua Simbolon, 2-0, while Arcita (52 kg) posted a similar 2-0 victory over Thai Phithak Paokrathok.
Not as fortunate, Wally lost to Vietnam’s Thi Chinh Nguyen, and Zamora bowed to another Viet, Thu Hoai Nguyen. The wushu artists jacked their medal total in the Games to two golds, three silvers and one bronze after Francisco Solis copped the bronze in sanda’s 56 kg.
Apart from Petecio, who narrowly lost to Tassamalee in the 2010 Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam, seven other boxers—flyweight Rey Saludar, bantam Mario Fernandez, welter Wilfredo Lopez, light welter Dennis Galvan, lighfly Josie Gabuco, flyweight Maricris Igam and bantam Iris Magno—also advanced to the semifinals.
All of them either drew a bye or moved the next round due to lack of competitors, except for Galvan, who had to subdue Cambodian Ratha Svay, 3-0, Sunday for a sure bronze as well.
At the National Indoor Stadium in Yangon, Angana lost his 55 kg Greco Roman title after Vietnam’s Doi Dang Tien pulled off a narrow and controversial 6-5 victory over the defending two-time champion.
Way ahead on points, Angana of Zamboanga City saw his 4-0 lead vanish after Doi, the eventual gold medalist, scored on a forceful throw and a questionable point that pegged the count at 5-all.
Tien ended the vicious skirmish on the mat with 20 seconds left in the second round by stealthily taking an off-balanced Angana from behind for another point.
“They cheated me,” Angana told the Inquirer. “I was way ahead in the first round, but they said I tripped him and they awarded three points to him in the second. Our protest fell on deaf ears.”
Angana, who ruled his weight class in the 2009 Laos and 2011 Indonesia editions, won over Thailand’s Kongsrichai Kritsada, 7-3, and Suparmanto of Indonesia, 3-0, after the defeat against Tien in the four-wrestler, round-robin format. Angana, 30, duplicated his silver finish in the 2005 Manila Games.
As of 6 p.m. (7:30 p.m. in Manila), the Filipinos jumped to sixth overall from ninth place after garnering two golds, four silvers and one bronze, way behind Myanmar’s 11-2-5 collection. At far second were the Indonesians (4-3-5) followed by the Vietnamese (4-3-4), Malaysians (3-5-11) and Thais (2-6-1).
Greenhorn Noel Norada faced Vietnam’s Sy Thui Pham in the repechage but lost, 7-5, to miss out on the bronze medal in the 60 kg Greco event.
The men’s basketball team teetered on the brink of defeat before completing a come-from-behind 88-75 triumph over Singapore in the opener of its title-defense at the Zayar Thiri Indoor Stadium.
Far Eastern U standout Rey Mark Belo came off the bench to finish with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Marcus Douthit, who promised to donate P500 to victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda for every point and rebound he collects, tallied 14 points and 10 boards.
Perlas Pilipinas, the women’s squad, scored a scrambling 65-59 victory over Malaysia in its debut to prime itself up for a virtual gold battle with reigning titlist Thailand on Tuesday.
Ewon Arayi and Analyn Almazan combined for 26 points as Perlas Pilipinas avenged its loss to the Malaysians in the Fiba Asia Championship early this year.
Burdened with the task of winning the country’s first title in football, the Philippine Malditas will kick off their bid against host Myanmar at Mandalarthiri Stadium in Mandalay.
Indonesia’s late withdrawal from the competition has reduced the Malditas’ group to three teams, leaving them little room for error in this economic hub, 286 kilometers north of this sprawling capital city.
The Malditas are also treating the absence of the men’s Under-23 team, which failed to make the grade set by the Philippine Olympic Committee, as an added motivation.
Over at the Ngalike Dam, Hermie Macaranas and Alex Generalo begin their campaign in canoe-kayak with the rookie Macaranas, the Philippine National Games champ, testing the SEAG waters in the C1 men’s 200m, 500m and 1000m. Generalo, on his second try in the biennial conclave, is entered in the K1 men’s 200m.