Pencak silat chips in another bronze

JAKARTA—Pencak silat contributed a fourth bronze to the Philippine haul Wednesday through Almohaidib Abad in men’s singles form in the 18th Asian Games here.

Abad tallied 455 points in the finals and lost the silver medal by just five to Ilyas Sadara of Thailand. Sugianto Sugianto of host Indonesia was the runaway gold medal winner with 471 points.

The bronze, plus the gold won by skateboarder Margielyn Didal, brought the country’s count to four golds and 13 bronzes in the medal tally still being dominated by China, which cracked the century mark in gold medals by hoarding 101 as of 9:34 p.m. Wednesday night.

Pugs Carlo Paalam and Eumir Marcial posted contrasting victories at Jakarta International Expo and assured the country of two more bronze medals with Paalam defeating Kazakhstan’s Temirtas Zhussupov, 4-1, in the quarterfinals of the men’s flyweight division.

Marcial pounded Kim Jin-jea of South Korea to score a lopsided 5-0 win in their middleweight quarterfinal bout as he and Paalam joined Roger Ladon in the final four. Ladon battles Yuttapong Tongdee on Friday for a place in the men’s flyweight finals.

Paalam will be slugging it out with Amit of India with Marcial’s next foe still to be determined.

Kristine Knott finished seventh in the 200-meter women’s final, ruled by Bahrain’s Edidiong Odiong in 22.96 seconds.

In women’s volleyball, the glamorous Filipinos exited in the quarterfinals after a 25-15, 25-9, 25-7 beating at the hands of World No. 1 China.