Baguio wushu youths tame Indons

KUALA LUMPUR (Via Globe Telecoms) – Two products of the Baguio regional training program of the Philippine Wushu Federation made headlines in Penang yesterday as they won the country’s two golds in an early morning conquest of seasoned Indonesian opponents at the Pisa Indoor Stadium.

Competing for the first time in the Southeast Asian Games, Jerome Calica, a computer student at the Philippine Science and Technology Center in Baguio City, shrugged off a muscle injury in his right leg to beat Indonesian Arif Harsoyo in the 52kg category in the sanshou event.

Marques Sangio lived up to his billing as the top seed in the 60 kg class, beating Teguh Prastowo also of Indonesia, to give the Philippines its second gold of the day and fourth in two days, making wushu the best performing sport among 28 the Philippines is competing in here.

Wushu also bagged its second silver through Rexel Nganhayna, who bowed to Vienamese Diep bao Minh in the finals of the 56 kg section.

The two other golds came from Mark Robert Rosales and Willie Wang on the first day, and the other silver from Lily So in the nanquan event, also Sunday.

"They’re good, very good. Of course, I’m happy with their performance, I’m proud of all of them," PWF president Julian Camacho told The STAR yesterday in a long distance interview from Kuala Lumpur, over 400 kms from the competition venue.

Calica, a 19-year-old who is the eldest of four children of Ilocano parents from La Union, dispensed with Laotian Phoukhong Kamsounthone in the quarterfinals, then quashed Tran Xuan Ann of Vietnam in the semifinals to advance to the finals against the fancied Indonesian.

His opponent in the finals made victory easier for Calica by beating Malaysian hero and top seed Lim Chee Leong in the semifinals.

Sangio, a 22-year-old also from the Pines City, drew a bye into the semifinals where he crushed Malaysian Bernard Radin to set a gold medal encounter with Teguh.

"I can’t believe I won. I expected a tough fight here and I prepared for it. I’m just happy all my efforts were rewarded," said Sangio, a criminology student at the Baguio Colleges Foundation.

Three more events — the women’s nangun and taijijian and men’s taijijian – were being played starting at 2:30 p.m. yesterday.