Catalan, short in height but long in talent, overwhelmed an injured Viet Quoc Vinh Phan with his guts and spunk and came away with a 2-0 victory in the final of the men’s sanshou -52kg category to the delight of the big flag-waving Filipino crowd that has been the source of inspiration for the RP athletes since Day One.
The other wushu bet, Eduard Folayang failed in his gold medal bid in the -70kg class as he succumbed to world champion Xu Yanfei of China, 0-2, but his silver capped the Philippines’ best performance since 1962.
The wushu gold and silver hiked Team RP’s haul to 4-6-9 (gold-silver-bronze) for 18th place in the medal tally as it surpassed the country’s 4-5-9 output in the 1986 Seoul Games. It was the Filipinos’ best finish since the team wound up fourth overall in the 1962 Games in Jakarta, Indonesia on a 7-4-16 haul.
"I did a lot of preparation for my Vietnamese opponent since he is the toughest fighter in the division," said the 28-year-old Catalan, who dedicated the win to his family, the President and the wushu federation.
Phan said later that he fought with only one leg and one arm after sustaining injuries in his previous fights.
"I have very serious injuries in my left shoulder and right leg. So I had nothing to fight with," said Phan.
"I could only fight with one leg and one arm. It’s disappointing that my heart was in it, but my body couldn’t take it."
Catalan put his heart and mind in the match.
The pint-sized Filipino fighter, the world champion in the -48kg class who managed to show the same gung-ho style in the heavier category, eluded the long legs of Phan with his quickness and succeeded in wrestling the taller, heftier Viet with his timing and determination to sweep the gold medal in two rounds.
After the 1962 Jakarta Games, the Philippines won two golds in Thailand in 1966, one in Bangkok in 1970, was shut out in Iran in 1974, took four golds in 1978 in Thailand, two in India in 1982, four in Seoul in 1986, one in 1990 in Beijing, three in 1994 in Hiroshima and one in 1998 in Bangkok.
Butch Ramirez, chair of the Philippine Sports Commission, has earlier predicted a haul of five gold medals by the RP contingent, which leaned on boxers Violito Payla and Joan Tipon, pool artist Antonio Gabica and Catalan in what could turn out to be the country’s most impressive performance in years.
This came after the Filipino athletes struggled in all fronts and stayed without a gold medal until Gabica, who two nights earlier blew his title bid in the 8-ball, assured the Philippines of its first gold medal after forcing an all-Filipino showdown with Jeffrey de Luna in the men’s 9-ball final. Gabica won the gold.
Payla then came through with the second gold by outpointing Thai former world champion Somjit Jongjohor in the final of the 51kg division Tuesday while Tipon chalked up the Philippines third gold with a victory over Han Soon Chul of Korea Wednesday.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco Jr, hailed the RP athletes’ performance and congratulated them for giving their best not only for personal glory but to bring honor to the country as well.
Catalan, along with the other medalists, will lead Team RP in the closing rites of the Games Friday where world-renowned artist Lea Salonga will take center stage as the main performer at the Khalifa Stadium.
The other wushu bets, however, struggled in other events with Pedro Quina and Willy Wang placing seventh and ninth in the nanquan-3 events combined nanquan (Southern-style cudgel).
In other final day bouts for the RP bets, brothers Jerry and Jimmy Angana lost their matches in the prelims of wrestling with the former bowing to Uzbek Dilshod Mansurov, 0-3, in the 55kg division and the latter dropping a 1-3 decision to Syrian Mazen Kadmani in the 66kg class.
The fencing team of Wilfredo Vizcayno Jr., Almario Vizcayno and Avelino Victorino Jr. trounced Bahrain, 45-31, but bowed to Kazakhstan, 24-44, in the quarterfinals and dropped out of the medal race in the men’s epee team event. There were still Filipino athletes competing at presstime with Darwin Laylo, Ronald Dableo and Jedara Docena in rapid chess and Jaime Asok and Rexel Fabriga in the 10m platform final.