MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is assured of at least two medals in the 17th Asian Games courtesy of its wushu team with both Jean Claude Saclag and Francisco Solis in men’s sanda.
And as both athletes march into the medal round, most Filipinos are yet to be familiarized about the sport.
Wushu is a traditional Chinese martial arts divided into two contrasting disciplines such as taolu (forms) and sanda (sparring).
Taolu is a showcase of the martial arts’ form from stance, punches, kicks to aerial techniques while sanda, like kickboxing, is a modern fighting method involving two competitors in the same weight class.
In the case of Saclag, he competes in the -60kg category and will take on India’s Narender Grewal in the semifinals while Solis faces China’s Zhao Fuxiang in the -56kg event as both, not to be contented with just bronze medals, continue their road to gold.
In recent years, the country has reaped medals from wushu. One of the Philippines’ futile 16-medal haul in the 2010 Asiad in Guangzhou came from wushu with Mark Eddiva taking home the bronze also in men’s sanda in the -65kg class.
In the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Philippines would’ve gone home with medals to parade had wushu was an official sport in the world’s biggest sporting event.
The Philippines won four medals with wushu as a demonstration sport. Willy Wang won the gold medal in men’s nanguan and nangun, Mary Jane Estimar bagged silver in women’s sanda while Benjie Rivera and Marian Mariano wound up with bronze medals in men and women’s sanda, respectively.
Unfortunately, the bid to make wushu an official sport in the Olympics was denied anew by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) last year.
The country also garnered two medals in wushu in the 2006 Asiad in Doha, Qatar with Rene Catalan winning the gold and Eduard Folayang taking home the silver in men’s sanda.
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