Pimentel wins gold in world wushu tilt

Lester Pimentel dished out a near-flawless performance to beat 57 rivals and capture the gold medal in the nanquan or the southern style in the Second World Traditional Wushu Championships in Zheng Zhou, China Wednesday.

Inspired by recent victories of the youth and men’s squads in the contemporary wushu (for sports competition) in two separate tournaments, the 32-year-old Pimentel tallied 8.80 points to nip his fancied Chinese rival by .07.

A Canadian bet finished third with 8.71.

"I’m glad that all my sacrifices paid off," said Pimentel. "I won because of my technical superiority over other entries. I just hope my teammates will also win."

The other members of the team – Garry Cua, Rica Bitara and Maureen Liang — are set to see action Thursday. The Philippine Wushu Federation, Philippine Sports Commission and SM Sports Central, sponsored the campaign of the RP squad headed by Ong Chiao Hing.

"They also have good chances of winning," said Pimentel, who came out of semi-retirement last year to lead wushu’s 11-gold romp in the Manila SEA Games. "My victory, I hope, will be a big boost to my fellow wushu athletes who will compete in the coming Asian Games."

With his impressive performance, Pimentel caught the fancy of European officials, some of them immediately offered him a coaching job.

"They even wanted me to conduct seminars in their respective countries," said Pimentel.

The event, which attracted 68 countries, had an eloborate opening ceremony Tuesday in the ancient Shaolin Temple.

Unlike the contemporary wushu, traditional wushu puts premium on self-defense and attacking movements.