Laruan goes for wushu gold vs Thai

BANGKOK – Team Philippines hopes to come up with a strong finishing kick as it closes out its campaign in five events in the first Asian Martial Arts Games at the Indoor Stadium Huamark here today.

Wushu bet Zaidi Laruan, who beat Van Dai Vo of Vietnam in the semis of the men’s lightweight category, goes for the gold medal against reigning Southeast Asian Games champion Kwhangkhwang Weerapol of Thailand.

The RP bets, who bagged one gold and two silver medals in taekwondo, are also seeing action in muay thai, pencak silat, wushu, kickboxing and karatedo.

Olympic silver medalist Marian Mariano saw action late yesterday against the Jingjing Gao of China for a chance to advance to the medal round in women’s 60-kg sanshou event at the Silpa-Archa Building in far-away Suphanburi Sports Center.

Unheralded Jeff Figueroa delivered the country’s first gold medal after clobbering Rezai Hasan of Afghanistan, 10-7, in the men’s taekwondo bantamweight final.

“Winning the first gold medal has always been the hardest thing to do,” RP chief of mission Dave Carter said. “But now that we’ve won it, things are slowly falling into place. We are expecting more medals to come as the tournament progresses.”

Figueroa’s stunning victory came on the heels of fellow jins Marlon Avenido (men’s welterweight class) and Kristie Elaine Alora’s (women’s middleweight category) silver medal feats.

Another jin, Karla Jane Alava, won a bronze medal in the women’s bantamweight category while judoka Karen Ann Solomon also took a bronze in the women’s middleweight class, putting the Philippines in 10th spot of the 41-nation team standings with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals.

Korea remains on top with nine gold, four silver and two bronze medals while Kazakhstan has five gold, four silver and three bronze medals and Japan totes a 5-1-2 (gold-silver-bronze) mark.