Chan siblings reign on wushu mat

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Baguio A’s John Kiethley Chan and his younger sister Vanessa Jo made it a family affair on the wushu mat, collaring three gold medals apiece as the POC-PSC National Games closed its curtains yesterday.

Sixteen-year-old John Kiethley, a member of the national wushu training pool, played true to form in winning the boys’ 13-18 jian shu event with 9.05 points, completing a three-gold romp at the Negros Occidental Multi-purpose Activity Center. He bested the field in long weapon (8.97) and changquan (9.10) last Saturday night.

Kid sister Vanessa, 11, duplicated the feat in girls’ 7-12 play, topping the jian shu (8.82) hostilities to follow up her earlier conquests in san lu quan (8.86) and long weapon (8.97).

Joining them in the triple-gold medalists’ club was fellow Baguio-A bet Solomon Xavier Cardenas, who ruled the boys’ 7-12 jian shu (8.62) to add up to the san lu quan (8.83) and long weapon (8.85) that he dominated the previous day.

National triathlete Nikko Huelgas survived a bad case of dehydration in emerging victorious in the male elite triathlon hostilities (2:11.18) over at the Pacific Shores in Talisay City, sharing top honors with Phl teammate Marion Kim Mangrobang (2:31.29).

A gold medalist in spear at the world junior wushu tilt last year, Baguio-based John Kiethley displayed his flexibility with the straightsword en route to 9.05 points, beating teammate Dustin Chan (8.51) and WUDI’s Tate Mathew Chuang (8.48) for his third mint of the tourney.

“I’m being recruited by (Wushu Federation Philippines technical official) Samson (Co) to train full-time in Manila. My parents already gave their go-signal (to relocate to Manila) but I’m still contemplating on it since I’m not used to the conditions in Manila,” said John Kiethley, who recently graduated from Baguio Patriotic HS.”

Not to be outdone by her older brother, Vanessa secured a third gold in jian shu with 8.82 points over teammate Faith Andaya (8.72) and Hope Extreme Wushu’s Kenie Neven Omengan (8.45).

“I did my best to win because my mom promised to buy me a new pair of shoes if I win here,” incoming sixth grader Vanessa said in Filipino.

It was not the promise of new sneakers but personal pride that served as motivation for a drained Huelgas to finish the 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run race ahead of everybody else.

“I thought I was dying in there as I’m fighting hard just to breathe. I was already zapped even during the swim phase. I just kept on praying,” said Phl record-holder Huelgas, who nearly collapsed and was given IV fluids at a hospital after crossing the finish line.

“Medics said I lacked electrolytes, probably brought about by bad nutrition on the eve of the race,” said the 20-year-old La Salle student.

Still, Huelgas came off the swim first after 22 minutes and 35 seconds, finished the bike in 1:44.19 and checked in at 44:24 for a time of 2:11.18, more than one minute ahead of 34-year-old Phl coach George Vilog (2:13.05). Benjamin Raña of CamSur was third (2:17.29) .

“I was worried they’d get to catch up. I still went at it as it would be a shame if I couldn’t finish the race,” he said.

Mangrobang, gold medalist in the Oman Beach Games Triathlon Test Event, topped the distaff side in 2:31.29 over Mirasol Abad (2:43.52) and Michelle Benedicto (3:28.20).

The Phl Malditas beat Iloilo FC, 2-1, to live up to their top billing in women’s football while Air Force (men’s division) and Negros First-Adamson (women’s) hacked out identical 8-0 shutouts of SC-SIT Cebu and Rizal Province, respectively, to dominate softball.