Saclag, Alvarez start strong

NAGOYA — Jean Claude Saclag has won just about everywhere he’s fought. Wushu. Sanda. Kickboxing.

Now, mixed martial arts in the Asian Games.

Saclag made sure the Philippines wouldn’t wait long for a medal, beating Saudi Arabia’s Saud Fawaz Almolhem in the quarterfinals of the MMA traditional -65kg division yesterday to lock up at least a bronze in the sport’s debut at the 20th Asian Games.

It is the first individual medal for Team Philippines here.

“I’m thankful to our coaches and to God, kasi in-assure ako ng bronze. But I want to go to the gold-medal match. I want to win the gold,” Saclag said.

He knows how to win gold. He did it at the Sanda World Cup in 2014, took silver at the Asian Games that same year, and has three SEA Games kickboxing titles.

“Kumpiyansa ako na kaya ko,” Saclag said. “Alam ko marami akong pwedeng ma-inspire na bata pag nanalo ako dito, so isa ‘yun sa iniisip ko na sana maka-ginto tayo.”

The Baguio fighter, turning 32 on Friday, gets his chance for more at 10:20 a.m. today against Tajikistan’s Otabek Rajabov.

It was a 2-for-3 day inside the Octagon for the Philippines. Carlos Alvarez followed Saclag with a knockout of Indonesia’s Ananda Wahyu Setyo in the men’s traditional -77kg – another guaranteed bronze. Gina Araos couldn’t complete the sweep, falling to Thailand’s Kanjutha Phattaraboonsorn in the women’s modern -54kg.

Soft tennis takes bronze

While traditional powers China, Japan and South Korea began their pushes, the Philippines formally got on the medal board in another place, too – a historic one.

Bien Zoleta and the women’s soft tennis team took bronze at Higashiyama Park Tennis Center, the first Asian Games medal ever for the Philippines in the sport, more than three decades after soft tennis joined the program.

“We can only hope for the best. Kaya po ‘yan,” said Philippine Sports Commission chairman Patrick “Pato” Gregorio, hopeful this early breakthrough is a sign of more to come.

There were missed targets in teqball, modern pentathlon, wushu and triathlon, but the setbacks were drowned out by victories from Saclag, Alvarez, Gilas Pilipinas Women, and the Sisi Rondina-Bernadeth Pons pair in beach volleyball.

Women power at work

At Aichi International Arena, the Gilas belles kept rolling – 90-73 over Hong Kong to clinch a quarterfinal berth. Stef Berberabe, Jhazmin Joson, Elizabeth Means, Camille Malagar and Janine Pontejos hit 10 of 21 from 3-point range in their follow-up to an 86-58 win over Kazakhstan on Thursday.

They’ll advance regardless of what happens tomorrow against host Japan – uncharted territory for the program.

Berberabe had 21 points and five rebounds. Bernardino added 17 and 11.

It was tight until Berberabe got going, and the Filipinas pulled away in the third.

“I’m not really happy and satisfied because we started slow,” Bernardino said. “But there’s still no excuse for what happened inside the court. At the end, we played together, did our best, and showed our pride.”

On the sand, Rondina and Pons started just as fast, scoring a 21-6, 21-6 win over Bangladesh’s Lucky Khatun and Sabina Khatun.

Elsewhere, it was a grind.

Fer Casares finished 10th in 54:58 and Inaki Emil Lorbes 18th in 56:44 in the men’s triathlon won by Japan’s Takumi Hojo in 52:56. Raven Alcoseba was ninth in 1:00:07 and Kim Mangrobang 20th in 1:07:23 in the women’s race won by China’s Lin Xinyu in 57:37.

In wushu at the Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall, six-time SEA Games champion Agatha Wong was seventh of 11 in Taijiquan and Taijijian. Sandrex Gainsan was 10th and Anthony Polo 18th in men’s changquan.

For Saclag, though – the versatile, decorated, can’t-be-denied fighter – the chase for glory continues today.