Parantac caps wushu 3-gold haul

NAY PYI TAW – Daniel Parantac of the famed Apo Lakay team of Baguio claimed the third and last gold of the vaunted wushu team, providing the impetus for what could be a fight to the last man standing in the bloody wars of the martial arts as the 27th Southeast Asian Games fires off in formal opening rites at the vast Wunnam Theikdi main stadium today.

Parantac, silver medalist in the duilian in partnership with John Keithly Chan and Norlene Ardee Catolico, won the two-in-one event with scores of 9.68 in the taijian (double-edged sword) and 9.70 in the taijiquan (slow, relaxed movements with powerful thrusts).

The gold was third for the wushu team and the Philippine camp following gold medal efforts by Jessie Aligaga in the 48 kg and Dembert Arcita in the 52 kg of the sanda (sanshou) or combat events of wushu.

Parantac, silver medalist in the 2011 SEA Games and 2013 World Wushu Championships, finally snared the gold despite an imperfect fall on his first compulsory jump.

“In the jump, I could give myself an 8, but in performance, I think I had  a 10,” said Parantac in half jest.

The wushu team, coached by Chinese sanda coach Tong Qinghai and taolu master Ma Qing, concluded its campaign with 3-3-1 gold-silver-bronze medals.

The silver medals were won by Divine Wally and Evita Elise Zamora in the women’s sanda and the trio of Parantac, Chan and Catolico in the men’s duilian. The bronze came from Natasha Enriquez and Kariza Kris Chan in the women’s duilian.

“We did our part and it’s now up to the rest of our contingent here to do theirs,” said wushu federation secretary-general Julian Camacho.

“We just hope they would pick up from what we started here.”

Although still at sixth with a 3-4-1 gold-silver-bronze medals, Team Philippines had at least swept past Laos (1-2-8), though Malaysia gained in the standings at fifth with 3-5-1.

Myanmar, helped by its gold mine in chinlone, remained up front with 13-3-6, with Vietnam at second (6-3-5), Indonesia third (4-4-6), and Thailand fourth (3-6-1).