Parantac breaks slump with silver in Men’s Taijijian

INCHEON, South Korea – World championship bronze medalist Jean Claude Saclag scored a 2-0 decision over Grewal Narender of India and advanced to the finals with a chance to win the country’s first ever gold medal as the wushu artists continued to show their form and power at the forefront of the Philippines’ assault in the 17th Asian Games yesterday.

Saclag, from Baguio-based Team Lakay, showed his world caliber with kicks and punches in the -60kg class of the sanda competitions at the Ganghwa Dolmens gymnasium.

Sanda, formerly also called sanshou, is a Chinese combat sport which is the same as muay thai, the difference being that takedowns are not allowed in muay or kick boxing.

Saclag advanced to the gold medal round against Kong Honxing, who advanced past Korean Kang Yang, 2-0.

Fellow wushu artist Daniel Parantac earned the country’s first silver medal but a teammate had to give up the other on a day the Philippines badly needed medals of any color to boost its stock among 45 countries.

With Parantac’s silver, the Philippines finally appeared in the standings, placing joint 21st with Laos behind China’s 35 gold medals, Korea’s 17 and Japan’s 15 as of late afternoon yesterday. Among Southeast Asian nations, Malaysia and Myanmar were ahead of the Philippines with two each, and Thailand and Vietnam with one each.

Parantac scored 9.68 points to win the silver in the men’s taijijian event of wushu behind China’s Chen Zhouli, who scored a near-perfect 9.78 points in the sport introduced in China over 500 years ago.

Francisco Solis scored two quick points late in the match Monday to beat Wong Ting Hong of Hong Kong, 2-0, in their men’s sanda -56kg quarterfinal duel where he suffered a hairline fracture in his right rib from his first round match with Shams UR of Pakistan.

Against doctors’ advice he decided to play in the quarterfinal round.

“He wanted to win a medal and he agreed to sign a waiver from our doctor (Ferdinand) Brawner so he could compete in the quarterfinal,” said Philippine Sports Commission chairman and chef de mission Richie Garcia.

He was to fight Chinese Zhao Fuxing, 2-0 winner over Kyaw Kyaw of Myanmar in the semifinals where the loser earns an automatic bronze medal and the winner advances for a chance at the gold.

By pulling out of the competition, Solis settled for the bronze medal, giving Zhao outright entry to the finals.

Smart Gilas pulled off an inspiring win early in the afternoon with a methodical 85-76 win over Group B top qualifier India at the start of second round competitions in men’s basketball. The Filipinos next fight archival Kazakhstan to close the round that will determine the top two teams from each of the four groups to advance to the quarterfinals set Sept. 27-29.

Swimmer Jasmine Alkhadi was fifth fastest in her heat in the women’s 100m butterfly in a time of one minute, 2.34 seconds.

Her event was topped by China’s Chen Xinyi, who logged just 58.56 seconds.

Alkhadi placed ninth overall. Her only chance at making it to the medal race is if one of the Top 8 withdraws for whatever reason.

Bowler Frederick Ong was at 12th while teammate Jo-Mar Roland Humapao was 35th among 52 entries in the men’s singles.

In the men’s individual compound ranking, Paul Marton Dela Cruz is fourth, Earl Benjamin Yap 19th, Ian Chipeco 25th and Jose Ferdinand Adriano 30th. The ranking determines the pairings for the knockout stages starting today.

The men’s doubles sculls team of Roque Abala, Jr. and Alvin Amposta fell out of the repechage.