Four Phl bets reach world wushu final

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine sanda (sanshou) team gained four finals seats and took three bronze medals in the 11th Wushu World Championships Thursday at the Ankara Sports Arena in Ankara, Turkey.

A combination of light and short warriors delivered the biggest results for Team Phl as Jessie Aligaga (48 kgs) and Dembert Arcita (52 kgs.) endured two fights in the day and advanced to the gold medal bouts Friday against Armenian Davit Grigoryan and Hoang Hong Tu of Vietnam, respectively.

Aligaga booted out Sri Lanka’s Lakshman Gunasekara while Arcita dominated Gulshian of India in the quarterfinals. In the semis, Aligaga dropped Egyptian Ahmet Hama to his knees with a crisp right straight for the clear win while Arcita rallied from one round down to repeat over former victim, South Korean Jung Woo Seo.

Arcita, however, was given immediate medical attention after the bout as he ran out of air and felt dizzy. He was cleared by the organizers’ doctor to fight on Friday.

“I gave all that I could after losing in the first round that’s why I ran out of air,” Arcita said.

Joining them from the distaff side are former Asian champion Mary Jane Estimar and Marianne Mariano, a silver medalist in the 2008 Olympics when wushu was presented as a demonstration sport by host Beijing.

Estimar will face training buddy Qiu Tiao in the 52 kgs class while Mariano takes on Liu Lingling in the 56 kgs category.

“We’re going all out. It will be tough going up with the Chinese, who know our moves since we trained with them in China,” said Estimar, who made the finals after beating Frenchwoman Sarah Belala.

Three Filipinos, however, fell by the wayside and settled for bronze medals, including Mark Eddiva (65 kgs), Rhea Mae Rifani and Benjie Rivera (56 kgs).

Eddiva, hounded by a loss a year ago to the same rival, yielded anew to Mohammadseifi Mohsen of Iran.

An old knee injury prevented Rifani from completing the semifinal bout against India’s Sanathoi Devi and her Chinese coach did not want to risk aggravation as the Filipina is still eyeing a slot in next month’s Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia.

Rivera also bowed to Li Kang of China.

The Philippines now has four bronze medals, counting the first one won by Daniel Parantac in tai chi Wednesday.

But Parantac managed to finish only ninth place in a field of 36 in men’s taiji quan of taolu and brother Denver and Thornton Sayan ended up outside the first 20 of the 47-man nandao event.

The taolu squad will make its last bid for medals when Asian juniors gold medalist John Keithley Chan, Eleazar Jacob and Engelbert Addongan team up for the dulian event (fight routine with weapons). In the women’s side are Kariza Chan, Kathleen Sabalburo and Nathasa Enriquez.